Warning, spoilers ahead!
Becoming China’s second highest grossing film of all time right after Wolf Warrior 2, The Wandering Earth hit the world by storm, grossing nearly $700 million worldwide in just a few months.
The Wandering Earth (7.7/10 IMDb) depicts the efforts of Liu Qi (Chuxiao Qu) and his sister Han Duoduo (Jin Mai Jaho) in helping rescue teams.
The United Earth Government has began The Wandering Earth Project, a program to push Earth out of the solar system using propulsion engines. However, as Earth nears Jupiter, a disaster disables the engines, leaving Earth to collide with Jupiter. Liu Qi and his sister Han Duoduo escape out of the underground city, but are drawn into a rescue team. Through numerous sacrifices and setbacks, the team successfully modifies a thruster. It pushes Earth from Jupiter, saving mankind.
The Good
The overall theme of the movie was unique. In most other films, a sole hero or a team accomplishes the society-saving task. In this film, the opposite was true. The team’s initial objective was accomplished by another team before the protagonists arrived. Similarly, it was with the help of many nations that they modified the thruster.
Above all, the directors of the film emphasized selflessness. This resulted in a dramatic film. For instance, Liu Qi’s father, an astronaut, steers the Space Station into the beam of the thruster in order to propel it far enough to reach Jupiter’s atmosphere.
The visuals were beautiful. From the views of Earth and Jupiter to frozen Shanghai, it was almost distracting.
The Bad
A small inconvenience about The Wandering Earth was that the film was in Mandarin. In addition, the English subtitles failed to accurately translate the Mandarin dialogue.
The Ugly
What I really disliked about the film was its horrible acting. Jin Mai Jaho, the actress for Han Duoduo, was at times acting like an immature child, and at other times the leader. As a result, horrible acting created an unrealistic character.
I would give this film a rating of 8/10. I subtracted two points for bad acting from an otherwise beautiful film.
