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"The Wandering Earth" cured my winter depression.

Seriously: on opening night, I happily joined a packed Times Square auditorium-full of moviegoers watching this science-fiction adventure, which stars a talented ensemble of of Mandarin-speaking actors trying to stop the Earth from crashing into Jupiter. I left the theater hoping that "The Wandering Earth" would be one of this year's Chinese New Year's hits . It grossed $300 million in China during its opening week alone, a hopeful sign that we'll see more entertainment as assured as this.

The setup might seem familiar at first. Two teams of astronauts fight to save the Earth years after its leaders transformed it into a planet-sized spaceship to escape destruction by an overactive sun. The first team is a two-man skeleton crew: the square-jawed Peiqiang Liu ( Jing Wu ) and his Russian cosmonaut buddy Makarov ( Arkady Sharogradsky ). The other is a small exploratory group led by Peiqiang's feisty twentysomething son Qi Liu (Chuxio Qu) and his upbeat partner Duoduo Han (Jinmai Zhao). These factions respectively spend most of their time battling MOSS, an unhelpful computer in a remote space station; and exploring an ice-covered Earth in stolen all-terrain vehicles (some of which bring to mind "Total Recall," specifically the tank-sized drill-cars).

But while director Frant Gwo and his writing team blend Cixin Liu's source novel with elements from American-made sci-fi disaster films—including " Armageddon ," " The Day After Tomorrow ," and "Sunshine"—they synthesize them in a visually dynamic, emotionally engaging way that sets the project apart from its Western cousins, and marks it as a great and uniquely Chinese science fiction film.

For one thing, rather than build the tale around a lone hero ringed by supporting players, "The Wandering Earth" distributes bravery generously amid an ensemble that includes action hero Wu; rising stars Qu and Zhao; and comedy institution Man-Tat Ng, who plays a grey-bearded spaceman named Zi'ang Ha. The script, credited to a team of six, never valorizes a singular chest-puffing hero, nor does it scapegoat a mustache-twirling antagonist (not even MOSS, the sentient, HAL-9000-style computer program in the space station).

The teamwork theme is cross-generational, too. Both Peiqiang and Ng (formerly the straight man to film comedy superstar Stephen Chow ) are treated with reverence because they're older, and are therefore presumed to have more experience and stronger moral fiber. The veterans work well with the film's younger astronauts, whose optimism makes them as brazen as they are idealistic.

This apolitical blockbuster about a post-climate-change disaster extends its belief in teamwork to the rest of the international community. The movie is filled with narrative diversions that reassure viewers that no single country's leaders are smarter, more responsible, or more capable than the rest—except, of course, for the Chinese.

Second, "The Wandering Earth" looks better than most American special-effects spectaculars because it gives you breathing space to admire landscape shots of a dystopian Earth that suggest old fashioned matte-paintings on steroids. Although Gwo and his team realized their expensive-looking vision with the help of a handful of visual effects studios, including the Weta Workshop , they have somehow blended their many influences in bold, stylish ways that only Hollywood filmmakers like James Cameron and Steven Spielberg have previously managed.

Third, the film's creators breathe new life into hackneyed tropes. Gwo and his team take a little extra time to show off the laser beams, steering wheels, and hydraulic joints on their space cars and exoskeleton suits, to make the gear seem unique. And the storytelling goes extra mile to show viewers the emotional stress and natural obstacles that the characters must overcome while solving scientifically credible dilemmas (all vetted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences). This movie may not be the next " 2001: A Space Odyssey ," but it's everything "2010: The Year We Make Contact" should have been (and I like "2010," a lot).

A week after seeing "The Wandering Earth," I'm still marveling at how good it is. I can't think of another recent computer-graphics-driven blockbuster that left me feeling this giddy because of its creators' can-do spirit and consummate attention to detail. The future is here, and it is nerve-wracking, gorgeous, and Chinese.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in The New York Times , Vanity Fair , The Village Voice, and elsewhere.

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Film credits.

The Wandering Earth (2019)

125 minutes

Li Guangjie

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Movie Review

China’s blockbuster The Wandering Earth is gorgeous, goofy, and on Netflix now

The country’s first big-budget science fiction epic is often familiar, but it does spectacle on an impressive scale.

By Tasha Robinson

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This review was originally published in February 2019, when the film was released in China, and in a limited theatrical run in America. It has been updated to reflect the film’s release on Netflix .

We’re living through a fascinating era of rapid change for the blockbuster movie model. America producers, eager to get their $200 million movies into the lucrative Chinese market, are increasingly looking for Chinese production partners, shooting in Chinese locations, and adding China-friendly characters and plotlines to American movies , even including extra scenes just for the Chinese cuts of films. But simultaneously, China and other countries are moving toward the blockbuster model themselves, creating homegrown films that don’t need to involve American partners at all.

And just as American films attempt to find paydays in foreign markets, foreign blockbusters are coming to America. The Wandering Earth , China’s hugely successful big-budget science fiction thriller, quietly slipped onto Netflix over the weekend, after a limited American theatrical run a few months ago. It shows a new side of Chinese filmmaking — one focused on futuristic spectacles rather than China’s traditionally grand, massive historical epics. At the same time, The Wandering Earth feels like a throwback to a few familiar eras of American filmmaking. While the film’s cast, setting, and tone are all Chinese, longtime science fiction fans are going to see a lot on the screen that reminds them of other movies, for better or worse.

The film, based on a short story by Three-Body Problem author Cixin Liu, lays out a crisis of unprecedented proportions: the sun has become unstable, and within a hundred years, it will expand to consume Earth. Within 300, the entire solar system will be gone. Earth’s governments rally and unite to face the problem, and come up with a novel solution: they speckle the planet with 10,000 gigantic jets, and blast it out of its orbit and off on a hundred-generation journey to a new home 4.2 light-years away. The idea is to use Jupiter’s gravitational well to pick up speed for the trip, but a malfunction of the Earth Engine system leaves the planet caught in Jupiter’s gravity, and gradually being pulled toward destruction. A frantic group of workers have to scramble to reactivate the jets and correct the Earth’s course.

The action takes place in two arenas simultaneously. On the Earth’s frigid surface, self-proclaimed genius Liu Qi (Qu Chuxiao) and his younger adopted sister Han Duoduo (Zhao Jinmai) get roped into the rescue efforts after they run away from home. Han is just curious to see the planet’s surface — most of humanity now lives in crowded underground cities, and the surface is for workers only — but Liu Qi is nursing a deeper grudge against his astronaut father Liu Peiqiang (longtime martial-arts movie star Wu Jing) and grandfather (Ng Man-tat, whom Western audiences might recognize from Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer ). When Liu Qi was a child, his father moved to a newly-built international space station, designed to move ahead of Earth as a guide and pathfinder. Now an adult, Liu Qi feels his father abandoned him, and wants to strike out independently.

Meanwhile, on the space station, Liu Peiqiang is ironically a day away from completing his 17-year tour of duty and returning to Earth and his family when the crisis hits. The station’s artificial intelligence, MOSS, insists on putting the station’s personnel in hibernation to save energy, but Liu Peiqiang realizes the computer has a secret agenda, and he and a Russian cosmonaut set out to defy it.

The entire space plot may feel suspiciously familiar to American audiences, who have a strong emotional touchstone when it comes to a calm-voiced computer in space telling a desperate astronaut that it can’t obey his orders, even when human lives are on the line, because it has orders of its own. MOSS even looks something like the HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey : it’s represented as a red light on a gimbled panel, like a single unblinking, judgmental red eye. But a good deal of Liu Peiqiang’s space adventure also plays out like a sequence from Alfonso Cuarón’s 2013 Oscar-winner Gravity , with dizzying sequences of astronauts trying to navigate clouds of debris and find handholds on a treacherous moving station while tumbling through space.

Meanwhile, the Earthside half of the mission resembles nothing so much as the 2003 nonsense-thriller The Core , about a team trying to drill their way to the center of the Earth to set the planet’s core spinning again. As with that film, Liu Qi and Han are part of a group trying to restart a failed system, and encountering most of their obstacles just in the attempt to get to the problem site. They pick up a few distinctive allies along the way, including biracial Chinese-Australian gadabout Tim (viral video star Mike Sui ), but mostly, the characters are drawn as blandly and broadly as in any American action movie, and a fair number of them get killed along the journey without ever having developed enough personality for audiences to feel the loss.

Pretty much any flaw The Wandering Earth can claim — flashy action scenes without much substance, a marked bent toward sticky sentimentality, an insistently pushy score that demands emotional response from the audience at every given moment — are familiar flaws from past blockbusters. Where the film really stands out, though, is in its eye for grandiose spectacle. Director Frant Gwo gives the film a surprising stateliness, especially in the scenes of the mobile Earth wandering the cosmos, wreathed in tiny blue jets that leave eerie space-contrails behind. His attention to detail is marvelous — in scenes where characters stand on Earth’s surface, contemplating Jupiter’s malicious beauty, the swirling colors of the Great Red Spot are clearly visible in reflections in their suit helmets.

No matter how familiar the plot beats feel, that level of attention not just to functional special effects, but to outright beauty, makes The Wandering Earth memorable. Not every CGI sequence is aesthetically impeccable — sequences like a vehicle chase through a frozen Shanghai sometimes look brittle and false. But everything having to do with Jupiter, Earth as seen from space, and the space station subplot is visually sumptuous. This is frequently a gorgeously rendered film, with an emphasis on intimidating space vistas that will look tremendous on IMAX screens.

And while the constant attempts to flee the destructive power of changing weather have their own echoes in past films, from The Day After Tomorrow to 2012 , Gwo mostly keeps the action tight and propulsive. The Wandering Earth is frequently breathless, though the action occasionally gets a little muddled in editing. At times, particularly on the surface scenes where everyone is wearing identical pressure suits, it can be easy to lose track of which character is where. It’s often easy to feel that Gwo cares more about the collective rescue project than about any individual character — potentially a value that will work better for Chinese audiences than American viewers, who are looking for a single standout hero to root for.

But the film’s biggest strengths are in its quieter moments, where Gwo takes the time to contemplate Jupiter’s gravity well slowly deepening its pull on Earth’s atmosphere, or Liu Qi staring up, awestruck, at the gas giant dwarfing his home. In those chilly sequences, the film calls back to an older tradition of slower science fiction, in epic-scale classics like 1951’s When Worlds Collide or 1956’s Forbidden Planet . The interludes are brief, but they’re a welcome respite from chase sequences and destruction.

The Wandering Earth gets pretty goofy at times, with jokes about Tim’s heritage, or Liu Qi’s inexperienced driving and overwhelming arrogance, or with high-speed banter over an impossibly long technical manual that no one has time to digest in the middle of an emergency. At times, the humor is even a little dry, as when MOSS responds to Liu Peiqiang’s repeated rebellions with a passive-aggressive “Will all violators stop contact immediately with Earth?” But Gwo finds time for majesty as well, and makes a point of considering the problem on a global scale, rather than just focusing on the few desperate strivers who’ve tied the Earth’s potential destruction into their own personal issues.

Much like the Russian space blockbuster Salyut-7 was a fascinating look into the cultural differences between American films and their Russian equivalents, The Wandering Earth feels like a telling illustration of the similarities and differences between Chinese and American values. Gwo’s film is full of images and moments that will be familiar to American audiences, and it has an equally familiar preoccupation with the importance of family connections, and the nobility of sacrifice. But it also puts a strong focus on global collective action, on the need for international cooperation, and for the will of the group over the will of the individual.

None of these things will be inherently alien to American viewers, who may experience The Wandering Earth as a best-of mash-up of past science fiction films, just with less-familiar faces in the lead roles. But as China gets into the action-blockbuster business, it’ll continue to be fascinating to see how the country brings its own distinctive voices and talents into a global market. The Wandering Earth feels like the same kind of projects American filmmakers are making — accessible, thrill-focused, and at least somewhat generic, in an attempt to go down easy with any audience. But there’s enough specific personality in it to point to a future of more nationally inflected blockbusters. Once every country is making would-be international crossovers, the strongest appeal may come from the most distinctive, personal visions with the most to say about the cultures they come from.

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More from this stream The Wandering Earth: news and updates for China’s biggest science fiction movie

Watch how a studio created the wandering earth’s fantastic world in this vfx reel, china’s blockbuster the wandering earth is coming to netflix, a new trailer for the wandering earth shows off a desperate plan to save the planet, the wandering earth could be china’s breakout sci-fi blockbuster film.

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The Wandering Earth Reviews

It’s impossible not to mention the familiar tropes and second-hand characters. But this is science-fiction escapism at its very best.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 21, 2022

The movie follows a rather outmoded model of large-scale disaster movies that have fallen out of fashion in Hollywood.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 4, 2022

The Wandering Earth isn't especially deep, but it's an explosive achievement of filmmaking

Full Review | Original Score: 4 / 5 | Jun 25, 2021

There's enough fun here to paper over the cracks, and Gwo does a serviceable job in ticking the right boxes and delivering an enjoyable mix of explosive thrills and melodrama

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 23, 2020

The idea, I admit, is interesting, but it's lazily executed. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 19, 2020

The Wandering Earth isn't a bad film at all if you want to kill a few hours wondering what is going to explode next - it's just hampered by an overly-rigid and predictable structure.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jan 8, 2020

The "issues" of the blockbuster are all here, with the lack of logic (not to mention complete disregard for the laws of physics), the "thin" characters, the clichés, and the overall lack of depth

Full Review | Dec 25, 2019

The Wandering Earth is definitely bold and silly, but when a film looks as gorgeous as this, it's hard not to be mesmerised.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.7/10 | Nov 6, 2019

[...] It matches the insanity and spectacle of a good Roland Emmerich movie and is far more consistently imaginative with its bizarre premise.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 3, 2019

The Wandering Earth champions Chinese heroes no more than Hollywood movies champion American might - making the film one of China's best forays into building soft power to date

Full Review | May 30, 2019

There's nothing new on offer in The Wandering Earth, but it does prove that China is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to making the kind of silly big-budget blockbusters that have been peppered throughout Hollywood for the last few decades.

Full Review | May 29, 2019

Bombastic blockbuster Chinese sci-fi has cursing, violence.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 23, 2019

The plot is fairly simplistic, but it's overcomplicated with extra characters and nonstop action chaos.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 21, 2019

The Wandering Earth really is quite preposterous, but it's crazily colourful, impressively propulsive and, in the end, embarrassingly enjoyable.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | May 20, 2019

[An] opportunity to see something different from Chinese cinema. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 20, 2019

If anything, it veers into the "so bad it's good" territory of cinema's terrain. It also offers also plenty of opportunities to examine Chinese projections of armageddon and bureaucracy... However, none of these elements make it a good film.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | May 15, 2019

It's almost impressive how Gwo manages to rip off "Gravity," "Sunshine," and "2001," all at the same time.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | May 14, 2019

It's exactly the mix of cheesy and crowd-pleasing that you'd expect from a blockbuster, with eye-popping CGI sci-fi set dressing to give it a little extra oomph.

Full Review | May 14, 2019

Critics well-versed in the relationship between state and cinema will undoubtedly have a lot to say about those themes, but this should not detract from the fact that, as a piece of broad entertainment, there is plenty to enjoy.

Loud, frenetic, and filled with sublime industrial and cosmic moments, blasts for fire and rockets, falling boulders and chunks of ice and blocks of concrete.

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Film Review: ‘The Wandering Earth’

Chinese commercial cinema reaches a significant landmark with its first-ever sci-fi megahit.

By Richard Kuipers

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'The Wandering Earth' Review: Chinese Sci-Fi Blockbuster

The out-of-this-world success of China’s first-ever sci-fi blockbuster, “ The Wandering Earth ,” proves that when it comes to watching special-effects extravaganzas in which stock characters scramble to intervene while the planet faces obliteration, it’s a small world after all. Director Frant Gwo ’s adaptation of the 2000 novella by Liu Cixin is no genre classic, but its furious pace, spectacular visuals, and fanciful plot deliver decent escapist entertainment. After accumulating an astronomical $640 million-plus domestically — plus a tidy $5 million on limited North American screens — since Feb. 5, this display of capability from China’s commercial film sector was snapped up by Netflix for future release on the streaming giant’s platform.

A hyperactive hybrid of doomsday films ranging from ’50s classic “When Worlds Collide” to Michael Bay’s bombastic “Armageddon” and, most notably, Ishiro Honda’s 1962 Japanese space opera “Gorath,” “The Wandering Earth” is perhaps most striking for its lack of nationalism and propaganda. Soft diplomacy, at most, is the order of the day. Politicians, bureaucrats, and army brass are nowhere to be seen. There’s barely a Chinese flag in sight, nor any chest-beating about Chinese ingenuity and leadership.

Instead, what’s presented is a traditional tale of nations and people pulling together to save the planet, with heavy doses of guilt, sacrifice, and redemption from the human characters. With global conflict and division so prevalent today, these messages of hope and unity have undoubtedly struck an emotional chord in many viewers, created positive word-of-mouth, and made the film much more accessible for international audiences.

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Viewers almost need a scorecard to keep up with a flood of information in the opening segments. In the near future, the sun is dying, leaving the freezing planet on the brink of destruction. What’s left of humanity is huddled in subterranean cities created with an eye-catching combination of steampunk, brutalist, and futurist influences by production designer Gao Ang. The United Earth Government, which is never seen and represented only by a French voice, has decided the only solution is to propel the planet to another galaxy 4.2 light years away. Everything depends on 10,000 giant rocket thrusters being kept alight for the 2,500-year journey.

Enter Liu Peiqiang, a widowed astronaut played with appropriate solemnity by “Wolf Warrior” series superstar Wu Jing , who is sent to a space station and tasked with navigating Earth’s path through the solar system, leaving behind young son Liu Qi and father-in-law Han Zi’ang (Ng Man-tat, “Shaolin Soccer”). In a nostalgic nod to Cold War days before the Sino-Soviet split, Liu’s best work buddy is likeable cosmonaut Makarov (Arkady Sharogradsky). (Oddly enough, almost the entire cast are given “special appearance by” or “guest starring” credits.)

Seventeen years later, Liu’s still in orbit, while Liu Qi (Qu Chuxiao) has bcome an angry young man and self-proclaimed genius who blames his mother’s early death on his absent father. On the very day his dad is due to finish his stint and return home, Liu Qi and adopted teenage sister Duoduo (Zhao Jinmai) sneak away to see the frozen surface for the first time. As they’re taking in the spectacular sights of ice-covered Beijing, a major rocket thruster malfunction sends Earth into the gravitational pull of Jupiter. Unless a miracle occurs in the next 37 hours, it’s goodbye Earth.

The warp-speed screenplay, co-written by producer Gong Geer, finds Liu guiding operations from above while the youngsters join rescue team boss Wang Lei (Li Guangjie) and his crew down below to pull off the impossible. Just one of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles facing Liu is MOSS, a HAL 9000-like computer with a secret agenda. In one of the film’s standout scenes, Liu and Makarov execute Cirque du Soleil-worthy gymnastics on a dangerous space walk in defiance of their AI comrade-turned-monster.

The clinical setting and near-silence of Liu’s task is nicely contrasted with the noisy, hair-raising ride of Liu Qi, Duoduo, and obviously-doomed grandpa Han Zi’ang on Earth’s rapidly crumbling surface. Though everyone plays second fiddle to mostly-impressive CG effects, Zhang Yichi scores some fine comic moments as Yiyi, the rescue team’s nerdy and nervous tech guy. Disappointingly, female characters other than Duoduo barely factor into the story.

When death, destruction, and outpourings of emotion are set aside, we’re treated to some truly beautiful images of Jupiter’s swirling surface and wispy vapor trails surrounding Earth as it glides through the blackness of space. But these are merely momentary breathers in a tale that hurtles to more climaxes than it actually needs, easily forgiven on account of the film’s display of technical wizardry.

Costuming, art direction, and DP Michael Liu’s widescreen photography are top-class. Apart from a handful of shoddy effects along the way, all other technical work is excellent. As in so many tentpole spectaculars, a heavy-handed orchestral score unashamedly attempts to manipulate audience emotions at every opportunity — unnecessary, since the film’s loud-and-clear theme of collective human effort outweighing the actions of individuals hardly needs such underscoring to resonate with audiences.

Reviewed at Greater Union Film House, Adelaide, Feb. 26, 2019. (Original title: “Liu lang di qiu”)

Production: (China) A United Entertainment Partners, China Film Co. Ltd. (in China), China Media Capital (in U.S.) release of a Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism Co., China Film Co. Ltd., United Entertainment Partners production. (Int'l sales: CMC Pictures, Shanghai.) Producer: Gong Geer.
Crew: Director: Frant Gwo. Screenplay: Gong Geer, Ye Junce, Yan Dongxu, Yang Zhixue, Gwo, based on the novella by Liu Cixin. Camera (color, widescreen, HD): Michael Liu. Editor: Cheung Ka-fai. Music: Roc Chen, Tao Liu.
With: Wu Jing, Qu Chuxiao, Zhao Jinmai , Ng Man-tat, Li Guangjie, Zhang Yichi, Arkady Sharogradsky, Mike Sui, Qu Jingjing, Yang Haoyu, Li Hongchen, Yang Yie, Jiang Zhigang, Zhang Huan. (Mandarin, French, Russian, Japanese, Korean, English dialogue)

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‘The Wandering Earth’ Review: Planetary Disaster Goes Global

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By Ben Kenigsberg

Feb. 17, 2019

“The Wandering Earth,” directed by Frant Gwo, arrived with stratospheric anticipation . Described as China’s first space blockbuster, it is already a hit in its home country and, on a more limited scale, in the United States, where it opened earlier this month. It certainly proves that the Chinese film industry can hold its own at the multiplex: It is just as awash in murky computer imagery, stupefying exposition and manipulative sentimentality as the average Hollywood tentpole.

Although the film is based on a story by Liu Cixin, it draws on a barely digested stew of planetary-cataclysm movies, with the eco-catastrophe and invasion films of Roland Emmerich serving as the most obvious spiritual guides. (Even a Chinese New Year setting correlates to the July 4 timing of Emmerich’s “Independence Day.”)

In this case, the disaster — the first one, anyway — is that the sun is going to engulf the planet, so the multilingual United Earth Government has concocted a plan to send Earth out of the solar system using 10,000 propulsive engines, with Jupiter’s gravity providing the final oomph. But a slightly incorrect trajectory could cause a collision and end civilization, a crisis that is well underway. (Humans live in underground cities, having survived by lottery, and Earth’s surface is frozen.)

Those affected include all of humanity, but in particular a brash young man (Qu Chuxiao) raised by his grandfather (Ng Man-tat) after his father (Wu Jing) left to help navigate from an international space station controlled by a heartless HAL-esque computer. As the calamities — earthquakes, rescues, communication failures and a last-minute celestial chemistry experiment — compound, the only shock of the new is that it’s the same as the old.

The Wandering Earth Not rated. In Mandarin, English, Russian, French, Japanese and Korean, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes.

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Summary The sun was dying out, people all around the world built giant planet thrusters to move Earth out of its orbit and to sail Earth to a new star system. Yet the 2500 years journey came with unexpected dangers, and in order to save humanity, a group of young people in this age of a wandering Earth came out boldly and fought hard for everyon ... Read More

Directed By : Frant Gwo

Written By : Gong Geer, Junce Ye, Dongxu Yan, Yang Zhixue, Ti Wu, Jingjing Shen, Chice Ye, Daixue Yang, Cixin Liu, Frant Gwo, Ruchang Ye

The Wandering Earth

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Liu Peiqiang

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Mike kai sui, hongchen li, zhang xiaoqiang, jingjing qu, yichi zhang, zhigang jiang, zhao zhigang, arkadiy sharogradskiy.

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Gianluca zoppa, astronaut in space station, marvin bouvet, french resistant, elaija chekhov, yesheng chen, yi ge's attendant, critic reviews.

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‘the wandering earth’ (‘liulang diqiu’): film review.

Director Frant Gwo and star Wu Jing headline China’s first sci-fi hit, 'The Wandering Earth.'

By Elizabeth Kerr

Elizabeth Kerr

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Remember when everyone sat around their radios, eagerly awaiting news that the president had rallied the troops and the Americans were coming to save us in Independence Day — eager listeners that included the same British army that gave the world the SAS, the badasses all special forces aspire to? How everyone beyond American borders giggled at that. Times have changed, and the savior cap has been placed on China in director Frant Gwo’s The Wandering Earth , the US$650 million box office juggernaut that’s taken the PRC by storm and vindicated the industry by earning a Netflix release.

In fairness, Independence Day was simply one in a long line of genre actioners (anything by Michael Bay, Saving Private Ryan ) that made the USA the hero, and so, perhaps with an eye toward a global release, the rah-rah jingoism expected from The Wandering Earth simply isn’t there (Old Glory is, however, conspicuously absent from patches on crew uniforms and space gear). More to (former) SARFT standards, the film presents a collective, global effort that appeals to our better natures, values heritage and respects authority. There’s no time travel — that’s still verboten — but the general positivity of the nearly conflict-free world of the story — there are bigger fish to fry after all — is likely what’s garnered the pic its respectable buzz.

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Review: “The Wandering Earth” Is China’s First Breathtaking Sci-Fi Success

Frant Gwo blends sci-fi with apocalypse extravaganza in the film based on Liu Cixin’s eponymous short story.

By Richard Yu , 6 Feb 19 23:41 GMT

The Wandering Earth is China’s biggest sci-fi flick to date. Directed by Frant Gwo of My Old Classmate and starring Wu Jing of Wolf Warrior 1 and 2 , The Wandering Earth was one of the most anticipated films of 2019. The film is based on a short story by Liu Cixin , whose flagship work The Three Body Problem was originally supposed to receive the cinematic treatment before production issues shelved the movie .

The Wandering Earth was released over Chinese New Year, one of the biggest weeks for the Chinese box office, when millions of workers spend a week off with their families.

The film is set in a future Earth, whose inhabitants prepare to escape from the solar system as the sun expands into a red giant phase , threatening to engulf Earth in flames. As the expanding sun changes the climate of the Earth, the governments of the world unite under the leadership of the UN Security Council to build massive engines to propel the planet out of the solar system and towards nearby Proxima Centauri . At the same time, the residents of Earth move to underground cities for the thousands-year-long transit.

However, just as the Earth begins on its journey across the galaxy, it gets trapped in the gravity well of Jupiter — after which it’s up to Wu Jing’s character Liu Peiqiang, his father, his, son, his adopted daughter, and a number of Chinese soldiers and scientists, to save the world.

Chinese Anticipation and “Sci-Fi Wolf Warriors”

Ahead of The Wandering Earth ’s cinematic release, Chinese movie review site Douban was abuzz with discussion, highlighting the level of anticipation that Chinese moviegoers had for the film.

However, Chinese viewers brought a critical eye to the film. An early trailer featured Wu Jing bantering with a Russian cosmonaut who reminded him that Russia built the first space station, only to be pointed to a “Made in China” sticker on the space station they’re currently in — suggesting that The Wandering Earth might carry significant nationalistic undertones. One Chinese netizen was especially worried that The Wandering Earth might turn into a “sci-fi Wolf Warrior ” (though, perhaps sarcastically); another joked that the theme of the film might be “those who challenge Earth have no safe place to hide” (a play on the ending of Wolf Warrior , where Wu Jing’s character declares “those who challenge China have no safe place to hide”).

A Chinese Film That Stands Up to Hollywood

Facetious online commentary aside, in our view The Wandering Earth is a production that rivals its peers from Hollywood. Perhaps it was Frant Gwo’s directorial intervention that prevented The Wandering Earth from becoming too much of a “hoo-rah China” film, but the actual end result was hardly jingoistic compared to its trailers — instead the film made for a breathtaking sci-fi flick.

On a cinematic front, as a sci-fi film The Wandering Earth unabashedly uses CGI to create fantastical landscapes — ranging from Shanghai’s landmark buildings engulfed by glaciers, to a “new” Beijing built on top of the ruins of 21st-century Beijing. While we have criticised excessive CGi usage in previous Chinese films such as Sky Hunter , this technique is at home in a high-production sci-fi film — and the quality of the CGI rivals that of American peers like Interstellar .

Saving The World, With Chinese Characteristics

Of course, being a Chinese-made film, The Wandering Earth still carries a more Chinese bent than an equivalent Hollywood film would.

For starters, Americans make no appearance in the entire film, though the US is still a member of the Earth government’s leadership; even American actor Mike Sui plays an Australian-Chinese worker. Perhaps this is inspired by the fact that since 2016, America has threatened to or actually withdrawn from a number of international agreements , and has demanded her allies pay for US troop presence . Maybe in an not-so-farfetched future, America would demand that the world pay for American scientists to save the world — and the world simply decided not to pay.

More prominently though, one scene suggests that Shanghai was the host of the 2044 Olympics and, of course, the fact that it’s the Chinese military alongside Chinese scientists and citizens who lead the effort to save the world draws parallels to the numerous Hollywood disaster flicks where it’s Americans who save the world from certain destruction (i.e., Battleship, The Day After Tomorrow, World War Z ). Amusingly, one commentator on Douban addressed this Hollywood trope directly, stating that if Hollywood had purchased the rights to The Wandering Earth , it would “become a propaganda flick for the US Marines.”

As it turns out, The Wandering Earth still carries hints of Chinese propaganda — after all, the film is foremost meant to appeal to audiences in mainland China. However, the film takes a less jingoistic approach to making China look good, especially compared to Operation Red Sea and Sky Hunter . The Wandering Earth champions Chinese heroes no more than Hollywood movies champion American might — making the film one of China’s best forays into building soft power to date. By focusing on making a great movie first and foremost, while only hinting at Chinese greatness, Frant Gwo can ensure that international audiences will actually appreciate the film and might leave with a more positive view of China afterwards.

It was also refreshing to see other countries playing a part alongside China — Russian, French, Indian, and Indonesian crews also make an appearance in The Wandering Earth . Ultimately, in contrast to American apocalypse flicks where Americans seem to save the world unilaterally, people from different countries come together to save the world — and multilateral consensus is required throughout the film, reflecting a message that the Chinese government has been pushing in real world affairs.

Everything considered, The Wandering Earth is not just one of China’s best movies of 2019, it could make a running for one of the world’s best movies of 2019. The film’s timely commentary on the need for world governments to unite against planetary threats, be they climate change or an expanding sun, is especially relevant in a world where certain leaders continue to deny the existence of climate change .

However, despite a US$30 million opening day box office, and a 8.4/10 rating on Douban, Chinese netizens will still find things to critique (albeit facetiously). One of the top-ranked comments on Douban bemoans the fact that “even though the sun is about to die, and the Earth is about to wander, our school uniforms [in the underground cities] are still ugly.”

The Wandering Earth (Chinese: 流浪地球) — China. Directed by Frant Gwo. First released February 2019. Running time 125 mins. Starring Wu Jing, Qu Chuxiao, Li Guangjie, Ng Man-tat, Zhao Jinmai, and Mike Sui.

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The wandering earth, common sense media reviewers.

Bombastic blockbuster Chinese sci-fi has cursing, violence.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Movie shows how humanity tends to unite in shared

No real positive role models.

Constant explosions, earthquakes, avalanches, etc.

Infrequent profanity. "F--k" used a few times. "S-

Vodka drinking in one scene, no drunkenness.

Positive Messages

Movie shows how humanity tends to unite in shared purpose in times of crisis.

Positive Role Models

Violence & scariness.

Constant explosions, earthquakes, avalanches, etc. Enraged soldier fires his machine gun at Jupiter. Reckless driving of transport vehicles, resulting in crashes, losing control, etc. Some fighting, punches, blood.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent profanity. "F--k" used a few times. "S--t," "ass," "damn," "bastard."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Wandering Earth is a 2019 book-based Chinese sci-fi movie in which a ragtag group of teenagers and soldiers try to prevent Earth from getting sucked into Jupiter's gravitational pull. It's in Mandarin Chinese (as well as English, French, and Russian), with English subtitles. There's constant violence: Characters try (and sometimes fail) to survive while the Earth crumbles in avalanches or rumbles in earthquakes, and when a space station master computer fails. A soldier fires his machine gun at Jupiter. Some fighting occurs, with punches and blood. Profanity is infrequent, including "f--k" and "s--t" used a few times. Overall, it's a Chinese take on the blockbuster science fiction movie, and it proudly wears its bombastic influences on its sleeve. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (1)
Kids say (2)

Based on 1 parent review

positive message

What's the story.

THE WANDERING EARTH takes place in a future where Earth is in peril. Climate change due to the sun dying has led to tremendous unrest and impending extinction for humanity. All countries and governments have united to form the United Earth Government, to find a way for the human race to continue. They have come up with a unique solution: Build large and powerful rocket boosters all over the globe and send the Earth out of its orbit around the sun, and transport it to another, more habitable solar system. This is known as the Wandering Earth Project. As this happens, cities are built underground, as the Earth begins to freeze. Liu Pieqiang is a Chinese astronaut who has left his son, Liu Qi, behind in order to serve on the space station that's helping the Earth navigate out of the solar system. Now a bitter and resentful teenager, Liu Qi has taken his adopted sister, Han Duoduo, out of the underground city with his grandfather's transport pass. He steals a transport vehicle, leading to their arrest, where they meet a half-Chinese, half-Australian teen named Tim. Then their grandfather is thrown in jail with them for losing his transport pass to his grandson. As they try to figure out how to get out of jail, massive earthquakes start happening all over the world, and the four escape. The reason for the earthquakes is Earth approaching Jupiter, resulting in Jupiter's gravity spikes wreaking havoc with the Earth. The plan was to use Jupiter's gravity as a slingshot to propel Earth further along its journey, but instead, the Earth is getting pulled into Jupiter. As Liu Pieqiang begins to realize what's happening, he tries to find a way to stop it, but he's thwarted by the space station's master computer, which seems to have a mission of its own. As the Earth engages in a desperate last-ditch effort to stop its final destruction, Liu Qi, Duoduo, Tim, and a ragtag group of hackers and soldiers come up with a desperate idea of their own, and it's up to all of them to find a way to reach the world and unite once again in order to survive.

Is It Any Good?

This is a bombastic Chinese take on the blockbuster sci-fi movie. The special effects and computer graphics are truly incredible in nearly every scene. The detail and chaos of a world that seems to be in a constant state of crumbling is epically rendered. It's a ludicrous concept, but for those willing to suspend all disbelief, it's a frenzied blowout of escapist entertainment. And if that isn't enough, there is the hilarious (intentional or not) scene in which a soldier, as angry as anyone in a firefight from a John Milius screenplay, fires his machine gun at Jupiter's Great Red Spot while cursing at the Gas Giant.

While the dystopian scenery is dense and hypnotic (so much crumbling!), there's a lingering sense that so much of this has been done before. The Wandering Earth wears its bombastic influence on its sleeve. There's the feel of Roland Emmerich, Michael Bay, and a talking supercomputer that might as well be called Hal 9000, for instance. While it manages to steer clear of some of the more obnoxious tropes and clichés of its Hollywood influences, what remains with the story and characters isn't exactly groundbreaking. But perhaps that doesn't matter so much, especially when looking at amazing scenes in which tiny planet Earth, while traveling through space like a slow-motion comet, is on a collision course with the orange-yellow swirling entropy of Jupiter.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about blockbuster science fiction movies. How does The Wandering Earth compare to other big-budget sci-fi movies?

How is this similar to and different from other dystopian sci-fi movies -- movies set in a less-than-rosy future in which humanity struggles to survive?

This movie is based on a novel. What would be the challenges in adapting a book into a movie?

Movie Details

In theaters : February 5, 2019
On DVD or streaming : May 6, 2019
Cast : Jing Wu , Chuxiao Qu , Guangjie Li
Director : Frant Gwo
Studio : Beijing New Picture Film Co.
Genre : Science Fiction
Topics : Book Characters , Robots , Science and Nature , Space and Aliens
Run time : 125 minutes
MPAA rating : NR
Last updated : February 18, 2023

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'The Wandering Earth' Review: China's First Sci-Fi Blockbuster Is A Spirited But Overlong Spectacle

The Wandering Earth plays like a sci-fi movie made by an algorithm. You've got your doomsday premise, your seedy post-apocalyptic world, your scrappy teen leads, your ambitious space mission to save the Earth from certain destruction. Throw in the operatic bombast of Chinese blockbusters, and you've got yourself a hit.

Based off the novella of the same name by Liu Cixin (whose Hugo Award-winning novel The Three-Body Problem is about to receive its own big-budget adaptation from Amazon ), The Wandering Earth is being billed as China's first proper sci-fi blockbuster. And it carries that burden with glorious purpose. The Wandering Earth blends throwback elements that harken to '90s Hollywood disaster flicks with the sumptuous excess of the Chinese historical epics. It's a film designed to be a crossover hit — the potential of which has already been spotted by Netflix, which recently picked up the film for streaming. But as manufactured as the film is, The Wandering Earth is so ambitiously action-packed and visually stunning that it's difficult not to be taken along for the ride.

Directed by Frant Gwo , The Wandering Earth sees the Earth facing an unprecedented environmental crisis. The sun has become so unstable that within 100 years, it will expand and consume the Earth, and within 300, the entire solar system. Faced with the impending doom of humanity, Earth's governments rally together to come up with a solution as outsized as their problem: they will build 10,000 huge jets throughout one side of the planet and fly to a new solar system 4.2 light-years away. As a result of their cosmic destination, the Earth's surface freezes and most of humanity is shuffled off into thousands of underground cities. Called The Wandering Earth project, the plan was to use Jupiter's gravitational pull to slingshot them toward their destination, but a malfunction in the Earth Engine system leaves the planet caught in Jupiter's gravitational field and once again facing destruction. The crisis kicks off two separate threads of action: on Earth's frozen surface, a small group of workers must scramble to fix the engines, while the astronauts in the international space station leading the journey discover a secret plot against humanity.

American audiences may be familiar with the array of characters populating both storylines. The group of workers — and the two rebellious teens who get caught up in the crisis — are straight out of disaster thrillers like Armageddon or The Core : gritty archetypes who get a few cool lines of dialogues or an impressive action sequence before dying one by one. Our main teen characters, self-proclaimed genius Liu Qi ( Qu Chuxiao ) and his adopted younger sister Han Duoduo ( Zhao Jinmai ) aren't much more fleshed out, but as the characters with the most backstory, they engender the greatest amount of sympathy. The duo accidentally get roped into rescue efforts after they run away from home in an effort to see the surface. While Han is just eager to see the surface after living her entire life underground, Liu Qi's rebellion comes from a deeper place of anger, rooted in his grudge against his astronaut father Liu Peiqiang (Chinese blockbuster star Wu Jing , in a remarkably subdued departure from his martial arts roles), who he feels abandoned him 17 years ago when he left to work in the newly-built international space as one of Earth's guides and pathfinders.

Meanwhile on the space station, Liu Peiqiang is counting down the days until he completes his 17-year tour and returns to his family on Earth. That is thrown for a loop when the crisis hits and the station's artificial intelligence, MOSS, puts the entire station's personnel in hibernation to save energy. But as the repair effort plays out on Earth, Liu Peiqiang realizes that something sinister is afoot and he and a Russian cosmonaut set out to thwart MOSS's plans.

There is an inordinate amount of exposition needed to set up what are honestly very simplistic storylines. But it adds to the whole grandiose experience that Gwo is crafting, which is most apparent in the awe-inspiring visuals. Gwo achieves an austere beauty with his use of visual effects — creating a picture of the swirling cosmos and Jupiter's cold, kaleidoscopic colors that is almost painterly. The images of the Earth moving through space with its tiny jets leaving trails of blue wisps behind it would be ridiculous in another director's hands, but is simply striking here. It's clear that Gwo is giddy to paint on a vast canvas the likes of which Chinese movies have never seen before — the epic scale and the sumptuous views of space are absolutely breathtaking.

The Wandering Earth often tips into issues of style over substance, but despite the formulaic nature of its story beats, characters, and cheesy sentimentality, there's an endearing goofiness to the film. Viral video star Mike Sui plays the impish biracial Chinese-Australian Tim, who often acts as the comic relief — sometime to grating effect. And there's an almost dry humor in Liu Peiqiang's interactions with MOSS, whose passive-aggressive announcements become exceedingly ridiculous.

And of course, there's the film's focus on Chinese nationalistic values that are so often espoused in the country's biggest blockbusters. Liu's story in particular puts the focus on collectivism and the need for international cooperation — echoes of which can be see in Xi Jinping's vision for space exploration . But The Wandering Earth manages to avoid being outright agitprop, despite a few laughably on-the-nose elements like its setting on Chinese New Year and Liu Peiqiang's friendship with the Russian astronaut. But despite some of its more nationalistic tendencies, The Wandering Earth is inarguably a wholly entertaining interstellar spectacle. If this is just the start of the sci-fi genre for the Chinese movie industry, then we can set sky-high expectations for the future.

/Film Rating: 6 out of 10

The Wandering Earth review: A massive epic about humanity

By kevin lever | may 31, 2019.

The Wandering Earth, now on Netflix, is a Chinese science fiction epic with humanity at stake. It’s well worth investing your time into.

Director Frant Gwo makes The Wandering Earth a memorable romp in the disaster genre. It’s unapologetic with its absolutely crazy premise, simply letting it play out so that you’re either on board with what’s ahead, or you’re looking for a way off.

The Wandering Earth centers on Earth no longer being a viable home at its current location, and so thrusters are placed at various posts on the planet to push Earth toward a new home in the solar system. But as always, things don’t always go as planned, and a team must race to save the planet and its people as they barrel toward devastation.

That sounds crazy, and it is. But there’s a grounding to the movie through the characters and their relationships. Some work much better than others, but the camaraderie and enthusiasm the cast put into the movie really helps bolster the non-action scenes.

The movie has this strange, goofy tone at times, offbeat character moments that can clash with the seriousness of something that happened only a moment or two before. At other moments, though, it fits and adds some personality to some of the supporting players.

The scale is incredible, from its gorgeous visual style to the action playing out on-screen. A huge transport-type truck drives through collapsing mountains, planets threaten to collide and astronauts make impossible jumps as debris flies around them. These all add up to its director Frant Gwo playing out disaster sequences with downright impressive shots for what he can fill the screen with.

The visuals are what keep the movie working the most, full of gorgeous eye candy. The destruction is near-endless but never loses its power from overuse.

The Wandering Earth

With the sun dying out, a group of brave astronauts set out to find new planet for the whole human race. With the sun dying out, a group of brave astronauts set out to find new planet for the whole human race. With the sun dying out, a group of brave astronauts set out to find new planet for the whole human race.

Guangjie Li
843 User reviews
82 Critic reviews
57 Metascore
36 wins & 36 nominations

Liu Peiqiang

Zhang Xiaoqiang

Zhao Zhigang

(as Hao Ning)
Yang Jie aka Liuzi

Astronaut in Space Station
French Resistant
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia The story is based on Hugo Award winning novelist Cixin Liu's novel of the same name.
Goofs The travel time from China to Sulawesi appears to be almost non-existent, which would be quite an achievement for a distance of 1000+ miles... in a truck... on ice.

Liu Peiqiang : Since the day The Wandering Earth project began... there was no going back.

Connections Featured in Kunlun Fight: Kunlun Fight 80 (2019)

User reviews 843

thewesterncowboy
Feb 12, 2019
How long is The Wandering Earth? Powered by Alexa
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Who's this original writer: Liu CiXin?
February 5, 2019 (China)
Lưu Lạc Địa Cầu
Iceland (location)
Beijing Dengfeng International Culture Communications Company
Alibaba Pictures Group
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$48,000,000 (estimated)
Feb 10, 2019
$699,992,512

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 5 minutes
Dolby Atmos

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THE WANDERING EARTH 流浪地球: One Giant Leap for Chinese Cinema

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Kevin L. Lee is an Asian-American critic, producer, screenwriter and…

After hearing that Netflix has purchased the distributing rights of The Wandering Earth 流浪地球 , I would not be surprised that the later months would see mixed to negative comments on social networks everywhere. I suspect many Western moviegoers would just shrug this off, and I can’t exactly blame them when they eventually voice their disapproval.

But context is everything. To me, context and background greatly shaped how I approached this film. All the problems I had involved clichés and set pieces that we have all seen before in many Hollywood blockbusters of this genre. It’s a pattern you can find in major Chinese films – they often borrow from Hollywood. That being said, The Wandering Earth being a Chinese film is exactly why I had a great time with it. The fact that China pulled this off without any support from Hollywood is an achievement in itself.

What a Committed Premise!

The premise of The Wandering Earth is probably the greatest litmus test in any film I’ve ever seen since Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter … that is you are either on board with its concept or not at all, and the answer to this question will heavily determine whether or not you enjoy the film.

THE WANDERING EARTH 流浪地球 – One Giant Leap for Chinese CinemaTHE WANDERING EARTH 流浪地球: One Giant Leap for Chinese Cinema

This film is literally about human civilization coming together to develop a global project known as “The Wandering Earth.” The project is to migrate the planet Earth to the Alpha Centauri system in hopes of preserving humankind and avoiding the Earth’s inevitable destruction by the sun’s aging expansion. So yes, there are literally giant thrusters running on fusion power, built across half of the entire planet in order to propel Earth in space. There are even bigger engines built to stop the Earth’s rotation, and in preparation of the global catastrophes that will arise, the project built underground cities to accommodate for the surviving human population. Yes, Planet Earth is now a giant spaceship that, when seen in space, looks like a comet traveling away from the solar system.

Again, you’d either think this is the stupidest concept you’ve ever heard, or you’d just go along with it and secretly admit this is the coolest idea ever and anyone who thinks otherwise is just a boring cynic who can’t have some imagination and fun. I am proud to report that I’m part of the latter group.

There’s a sense of lore and history throughout The Wandering Earth . In fact, one of the tiniest details I appreciated about the film was the font of its title and text – traditional paintbrush handwriting overlaid on a futuristic sci-fi story. As ridiculous as the premise may be, the film grounds it into reality through small details. As the film begins, the Earth has already left its placement in the solar system, away from the sun. The weather has become an unbearably cold wasteland of -83 degrees Celsius, and only 3.5 billion people remain in the underground cities. Despite all the futuristic gadgets shown in the film, they all have a sense of being used for a long time. It’s the kind of premise you’d normally find in anime series that creates a lot of room to play with history, character, stakes, and rules. That, to me, is where things can get really fun in a movie.

So Much Borrowing and Procedural Writing

Let me get the worst stuff out of the way first. The Wandering Earth borrows from a ton of Hollywood sci-fi epics. Some scenes even come off as direct rip-offs. From start to finish, you will notice plot points from Interstellar , Gravity , 2001: A Space Odyssey, Armageddon , and every Roland Emmerich disaster movie ever.

THE WANDERING EARTH 流浪地球: One Giant Leap for Chinese Cinema

Did they bug me? Of course they did. Yet, none of it surprised me. Chinese films have a history of borrowing from Hollywood, because guess what? The Chinese film industry *looks up* to Hollywood. The world outside the American film industry has always been playing catch-up on technique, execution, and style. It is no surprise to me that this film has several set pieces borrowed from other films. What IS a surprise to me is director Frant Gwo 郭帆 and his team of writers understand what made each of those Hollywood plot points good and meaningful. They’re not borrowing for the sake of borrowing. The filmmakers managed to string everything together and make them appropriately serve the plot. Even if a plot point comes from Interstellar , I can still praise it if the film makes the effort to earn those emotions.

That doesn’t take away the surface-level problems in the script, though. In addition to moments of unintentional comedy (one of them is in the trailer), the script doesn’t give much room for the characters to grow and become three-dimensional. Quite a few members in the cast are written as archetypes, from the comic relief guy (who’s never that funny) to the science nerd to the rugged squad leader. The characters are often written into a scene because the scene naturally calls for that kind of character to be present to give that line that is needed at the moment. Anything else outside of that is kind of barren, like the icy surface of the Earth.

What a Heart!

Having seen Wu Jing less than a year ago in the financially successful Wolf Warrior 2 , a part of me could not help but feel he was underused here. The man is best known for his martial arts and action choreography, and we get none of that here. That being said, based on what was given in the script, Jing delivered quite a performance. He captures the emotional conflict for a man caught in between being a father and being an astronaut serving the greater good of human civilization. The responsibilities between personal and global all rest on his shoulders. The same can be said for Qu Chuxiao , who gives an expressive, dynamic performance for a 24-year old actor in his first blockbuster lead role.

There are plenty more scenes where The Wandering Earth goes for the typical Asian sentimentality. You have the tearful goodbyes and the rousing speeches, all unapologetically delivered. My American side laughed over how on-the-nose the emotion can be. My inner Asian, on the other hand, was applauding and rooting for anything motivational to happen. The entire planet is coming to an end! Hope is a powerful force, and watching humanity come together in the face of great odds is moving in any situation, goddammit!

Insane Production Value and Visuals

The real takeaway from The Wandering Earth is just how good it looks for a Chinese movie. Remember when the South Korean movie Train to Busan looked better than World War Z did? This is exactly like that. You can pull any visual effect shot in this film, drop it into a Hollywood blockbuster, and you would think it’s your typical tent-pole $100 million budget movie.

The shocker is The Wandering Earth was made with $50 million, and from start to finish, the filmmakers never seemed to cut corners in the production design. If they did, then props to the filmmakers for being good at hiding them. The physical sets range from space stations to underground city streets to factory floors to lab rooms to the inside of a giant transport truck, all built with detail and imagination without exaggeration. The frozen wasteland never feels like an obvious green screen. The characters walk around with real mechanical suits that give Edge of Tomorrow vibes. Every single shot was put together with the intention of having its world feel as realistic and lived in as possible.

THE WANDERING EARTH 流浪地球 – One Giant Leap for Chinese Cinema 3

In my experience of watching several Asian action movies, their budgets have always forced the filmmakers to cut corners. The CGI normally looks like a PS2 video game. Characters will hold a bright CGI object that doesn’t even light up their own face. Fight scenes will remind you more of TV Power Rangers than they do Pacific Rim . Details like that always make Asian blockbusters a full tier behind Hollywood’s immersive quality. With The Wandering Earth , the gap between the two film industries has dramatically shrunk.

Interstellar was filmed on a budget of $165 million. Gravity was $100-130 million. Even Armageddon , a film that is over 20 years old now, costed $140 million to make. The fact that China pulled off a film on the scale of The Wandering Earth on a budget that’s one third the general budget of a Hollywood epic is a ridiculously impressive achievement.

One last thing: I want to give credit to Gwo for clearly proving that he took notes in how to edit a film that spans across multiple timelines and locations. The Wandering Earth not only adopts the insane production quality of a tent-pole blockbuster, but it also adopts the editing style of milestone filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Peter Jackson . The way their films drown out sound effects in favor of a voice narration or musical score is perfectly replicated here, and I’m here to celebrate it.

The Wandering Earth : For Hollywood, Typical. For China, Revolutionary.

The Wandering Earth may seem like one small step in the eyes of Western moviegoers, but it is one giant leap for Chinese cinema. Make no mistake, this film can stand alongside any Hollywood blockbuster in terms of quality. It fully embraces its ridiculously creative premise with attention to detail, great performances, and visual flair from start to finish, while making a lot of room to tell more stories in the future. Yes, I’m down for a sequel.

While it borrows heavily from other Hollywood films, this is an example where every technique was appropriately adopted and executed properly. Of course, I understand the opposing argument. There will be people who still think The Wandering Earth is objectively not good, and the reasoning is undoubtedly justified. But when you zoom way out and look at the influential power and eventual legacy of this film, as an entry in the Chinese film industry, it’s a candidate for China’s Mount Rushmore. There’s a reason why three weeks into its theatrical release, The Wandering Earth is already the 2 nd highest grossing film in China’s history – $650 million US dollars and growing. Meanwhile, even as a piece of sci-fi entertainment on its own, The Wandering Earth is a ridiculously fun time.

If this is a film you’re already looking forward to see, do yourself a favor and look for a theater that plays it before it’s out on Netflix. You’d want to watch this on the biggest screen possible.

Did you see The Wandering Earth ? What did you think of the film? Share below!

The Wandering Earth was released in theaters in the US on February 6, 2019. For all international release dates, click here .

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Kevin L. Lee is an Asian-American critic, producer, screenwriter and director based in New York City. A champion of the creative process, Kevin has consulted, written, and produced several short films from development to principal photography to festival premiere. He has over 10 years of marketing and writing experience in film criticism and journalism, ranging from blockbusters to foreign indie films, and has developed a reputation of being “an omnivore of cinema.” He recently finished his MFA in film producing at Columbia University and is currently working in film and TV development for production companies.

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Movie Review – The Wandering Earth (2019)

May 28, 2019 by Matt Rodgers

The Wandering Earth , 2019.

Directed by Frant Gwo. Starring Jing Wu, Chuxiao Qu, Guangjie Li, Man-Tat Ng, Mike Kai Sui, Jin Mai Jaho, Hongchen Li.

Sometime in the future, the sun is dying out, so mankind have built gigantic thrusters to propel the Earth from its orbit, to find a new home across the solar system. With the journey set to last 2500 years, it’s a mission fraught with danger, with The Wandering Earth chronicling the adventures of the intrepid young survivors at the heart of the story.

Frant Gwo’s science-fiction blockbuster crash lands onto Netflix as something of a perplexing surprise. Not least because surely its near $700 million Chinese box-office receipts afforded it more of a fanfare than being inconspicuously dumped on the streaming platform’s notoriously labyrinthine menu page. But maybe it’s deserving of such a fate?

The story is bonkers. It’s the kind of save-the-world fare that peppered multiplex electronic readouts throughout the late nineties and well into the astronoughties. The Core , Deep Impact , and to an unavoidable extent, Armageddon , are all influences on this eco-disaster pic. It goes without saying, that if you love films in which OTT serious music orchestrates the drama of a group of action movie archetypes uttering increasingly ludicrous dialogue, then The Wandering Earth is worth strapping in for.

The spacesuit wearing characters assigned with saving the earth are a ramshackle group of recognisible types: stubborn kid with daddy issues, little sister who he’ll learn to protect, their father who promised to return home, floating somewhere above the planet, and army grunts whose icy exteriors will melt faster than the ice covering the harsh landscape of this future world. However, despite such tick-box archetypes, the the film’s greatest strength is in making you root for these people. In the same way you could embrace Armageddon ‘s ludicrousness, yet still shed a tear as Grace Stamper said her goodbyes to Harry, The Wandering Earth has a similarly schmaltzy soft centre.

Initially the look of the film is an overtly artificial one: CGI bloat meets video-game cut scenes, as large vehicles careen through the bleak landscape, or planets jettison across the kind of visuals you’ve seen in countless Sci-Fi shows. The good news is that the aesthetics are consistent throughout, so you adjust to the vision, and by the time Earth is plummeting towards Jupiter, the backdrops against which the drama plays out are truly spectacular.

It’s not all about the spectacle though, with the more affecting moments being the smaller flourishes, in particular the way in which teardrops pool around the face of a character during a pivotal moment.

There’s nothing that new on offer in The Wandering Earth , but it does prove that China are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to making the kind of silly big-budget blockbusters that have been peppered throughout Hollywood summers for the last few decades.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★

Matt Rodgers – Follow me on Twitter @mainstreammatt

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The Wandering Earth

Despite a rushed prologue setting up what is going on and the issues Liu and his son have, the filmmakers have still created an incredible futuristic and lived in world with a combination of slick CGI and colossal sets.

Reviewed by Andrew Skeates | May 17, 2019

Hard sci-fi, disaster movie, megastar Wu Jing and family melodrama (ugh) collide in the ambitious and huge scaled ‘The Wandering Earth’. Based on Liu Cixin’s novel, ‘The Wandering Earth’ sees the sun dying out and the earth building gigantic engines, all over the planet, to effectively move it to a new solar system and out of the sun’s engulfing path. One of the lead scientists on this mission is Liu Peiqiang (Jing), who engineers the earth’s voyage from a giant space station. Having left a son on earth behind many years ago, Liu may soon get the chance to reconnect with him when his son and several other plucky would-be-heroes are drafted in to help make sure the earth stays on its course as the elements and the risk of the massive undertaking threaten to pull the planet apart.

‘The Wandering Earth’ is a massive film with massive spectacle. From set-design, to visual effects to set-pieces the film does not skimp on scale. Despite a rushed prologue setting up what is going on and the issues Liu and his son have, the filmmakers have still created an incredible futuristic and lived in world with a combination of slick CGI and colossal sets. Everything about ‘The Wandering Earth’ is big which is not surprising when the plot hinges on moving the entire earth to a completely new solar system. Like any good disaster/epic sci-fi movie, ‘The Wandering Earth’ does not skimp on daring-do and spectacle. The unique look and situation the characters find themselves in leads to all kinds of earth and space bound catastrophe and action including a daring ascent up an elevator shaft and some high-flying hi-jinks on the outside of a space station. With the budget and resources on hand, Frant Gwo’s film always looks amazing and the set-pieces are copious and exhilarating.

Yet, also much like any good disaster/epic sci-fi movie, the film comes with its fair share of cheesy, annoying and thinly written characters. Coupled with the unnecessary family strife, ‘The Wandering Earth’ does get clogged with cliché and melodrama on occasion. With so much spectacle and so many characters to fit in, the film also suffers from a lack of tension as proceedings sometimes appear to be rushed, trying to cram in as much epic story as possible. This doesn’t dampen the spectacle or creativity on show but does mean the sense of danger is quite often missing. Wu Jing is also more of a co-star here (drafted in for star power) meaning he sits on the sidelines somewhat while the cast of plucky young heroes handle most of the heavy lifting.

Still, as a large scale sci-fi epic ‘The Wandering Earth’ largely succeeds in delivering stunning set-piece cinema. As there is so much CGI utilized is does vary in quality but overall succeeds in creating a crumbling futuristic world and is certainly needed to tell a story on this scale. While the Chinese film industry is more than capable of delivering the big budget martial arts fantasy or the large scale military action blockbuster, it’s good to see them now tackle the sci-fi disaster epic.

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Film Review: “The Wandering Earth”

One of the highest grossing sci-fi movies was made available on Netflix, and you have probably never even heard of it.

Recently, Netflix announced and commenced its plans to distribute the Chinese blockbuster “The Wandering Earth.” Released in early February, the film is the third-highest grossing film of 2019, the second-highest grossing non-English film of all time, and China’s most successful science fiction motion picture endeavor to date. Yet, in spite of these achievements, Netflix’s decision to offer “The Wandering Earth” through its streaming service has garnered very little publicity and excitement in general. In an effort to understand why, I looked into both the film itself and Netflix’s distribution of it.

“The Wandering Earth,” directed by Frant Gwo, is an interstellar space epic based on a short novel of the same name by Liu Cixian. It is set in the future when the Sun has rapidly transforming into a red giant capable of engulfing Earth. In an effort to save themselves, humanity has attempted to physically move Earth out of the solar system using giant engines. As a result of the departure from the orbit of the Sun, humanity has been forced underground to escape the frozen surface. The film commences with Chinese astronaut Liu Peiqiang (Wu Jing) being sent to a space station that is designated to map the path that Earth will take. He entrusts his son, Liu Qi (Qu Chuxiao) to his father-in-law (Ng Man-tat) and departs, promising to return soon. Seventeen years later, Peiqiang is set to return to Earth. However, his plans are suddenly interrupted when his son is arrested for sneaking onto the surface. Moreover, as the Earth is nearing the orbit of Jupiter, the gravitational pull of the gas giant abruptly disables several Earth engines and begins to pull Earth into its orbit. Though separated by the expanse of space, together the father and son duo attempt to work in tandem to try to save the planet and all of humanity from an apocalyptic destruction.

“The Wandering Earth” is a wonderful cinematic experience that is extremely well-produced. The sets, CGI, and costumes are all meticulously and fantastically constructed. The color grading within the film is bold and rich. Yet, no amount of production can salvage the film’s convoluted writing and less than adequate character development. Not only does Gwo’s film contain almost every single sci-fi and fantasy trope there is, character arcs are confusing and shallow as certain characters seem only to exist to be killed off for dramatic effect. The apocalyptic cataclysm, the integral application of gravity, the apathetic artificial intelligence, the cybernetic military suits, and the space plot — ultimately, the story wound up feeling like a smorgasbord of monumental Hollywood sci-fi films haphazardly stuffed into one movie and packaged with vibrant visual effects. What little original content there is feels contrived and empty. For a Chinese sci-fi film, “The Wandering Earth” relies too heavily on mimicking the prior works and themes of many American films. While the movie may appeal to a Chinese audience unfamiliar with its recurring Hollywood sci-fi tenets, it perhaps might not contain the same sort of allure to their Western counterparts.

Apart from the film itself, Netflix’s distribution and advertising stratagem arguably also played a role in the lackluster fanfare of Gwo’s work. The streaming service released an English dubbed trailer for “The Wandering Earth” and advertised the acquisition of the film over its Asia division social media accounts in February. Yet, beyond these techniques, the company made little effort to draw attention to the official availability of the film to stream. Netflix did not make an official announcement nor did it include the Chinese blockbuster in its monthly list of new entertainment available in May. This is likely in response to the poor domestic performance of the film, which only grossed approximately $5 million across 22 cities in the United States. Thus, in essence, Netflix dumped Gwo’s film onto its site under the assumption that audiences outside China, where Netflix is banned, would have little interest in viewing the film.

“The Wandering Earth” marks China’s first official foray into the science fiction genre of film. Despite its massive success in Asia, the movie has failed to make much of an impact outside of the region. This disconnect can be attributed to both the nature of the film as a bland rip-off of other sci-fi works and also lack of publicity and advertisement that it received from its distributorNetflix. Although it may not necessarily possess a great deal of interest, Gwo’s sci-fi epic is an intriguing work and is worth at least flipping through should one have a subscription to Netflix.

Grade : C- Director: Frant Gwo Starring: Qu Chuxiao, Li Guangjie, Ng Man-tat, Zhao Jinm Release Date: February 5, 2019 Rated: PG-13

Image courtesy of Netflix.

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cyberflix • Jul 17, 2019 at 5:24 am

I enjoy this movie a lot and I feel Im blessed to take birth on earth, thank you.

Jennifer • Jul 11, 2019 at 5:51 pm

Es sind maximal 0 von 8 Trophäen erspielbar.

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The Wandering Earth II review – blockbuster Chinese sci-fi prequel veers off course

Frant Gwo’s follow-up to his 2019 mega-hit favours special effects and set pieces over performances, as the human race battles for survival

A gargantuan success in 2019, Frant Gwo’s The Wandering Earth remains one of the highest grossing non-English films of all time. This hotly anticipated prequel, even more ambitious in scope, follows the catastrophic events leading up to the Earth leaving the solar system in the original hit.

At nearly three hours long, The Wandering Earth II is packed with expository science talk, which gets more convoluted and tiring as the clock ticks on. The gist of the matter is, in the face of imminent ecological disasters, an internationally consolidated government body has hatched a solution to alter the orbit of our planet. It also involves blowing up the moon. As well as resistance from (mostly) western countries, the decades-spanning enterprise is also routinely sabotaged by the rival Digital Life Project, which looks to virtual reality as a new beginning for the human race.

Against the threat of total extinction and the unsettling ubiquity of AI, the question of what it means to be human lies at the heart of this prequel, whose sombre silver-grey colour palette marks a stark departure from the first film. Ironically enough, in this case, characters played by superstars like Wu Jing or Andy Lau take a backseat to the admittedly spectacular CGI effects.

In the end, the emphasis on set pieces over performances renders the collective plight of humanity emotionally distant and impersonal. Various mentions of how machines will take over human jobs also finds a strange echo in the film-making itself: Ng Man-tat died from cancer in 2021, yet his character from The Wandering Earth makes a cameo appearance in this prequel via AI technology. It is a gesture of tribute that, within the context of the film, feels oddly unsettling.

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COMMENTS

The Wandering Earth movie review (2019)
I left the theater hoping that "The Wandering Earth" would be one of this year's Chinese New Year's hits. It grossed $300 million in China during its opening week alone, a hopeful sign that we'll see more entertainment as assured as this. The setup might seem familiar at first. Two teams of astronauts fight to save the Earth years after its ...
The Wandering Earth
The Wandering Earth 's story won't win many points for originality, but this sci-fi epic earns its thrills with exciting set pieces and dazzling special effects. When the sun dies out, the people ...
China's The Wandering Earth is rich, gorgeous, and goofy
The Wandering Earth, China's hugely successful big-budget science fiction thriller, quietly slipped onto Netflix over the weekend, after a limited American theatrical run a few months ago. It ...
The Wandering Earth
The movie follows a rather outmoded model of large-scale disaster movies that have fallen out of fashion in Hollywood. Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 4, 2022. The Wandering Earth isn't ...
'The Wandering Earth' Review: Chinese Sci-Fi Blockbuster
Film Review: 'The Wandering Earth' Reviewed at Greater Union Film House, Adelaide, Feb. 26, 2019. (Original title: "Liu lang di qiu")
'The Wandering Earth' Review: Planetary Disaster Goes Global
Feb. 17, 2019. "The Wandering Earth," directed by Frant Gwo, arrived with stratospheric anticipation. Described as China's first space blockbuster, it is already a hit in its home country ...
The Wandering Earth (2019)
The Wandering Earth is an overly ambitious, laughably implausible, thoroughly confusing, clumsily edited mess. The plot runs amok with too many hollow characters making stupid decisions without reason. Action sequences were so badly shot and edited it was hard to figure out what was going on.
The Wandering Earth
The Wandering Earth - Metacritic. Summary The sun was dying out, people all around the world built giant planet thrusters to move Earth out of its orbit and to sail Earth to a new star system. Yet the 2500 years journey came with unexpected dangers, and in order to save humanity, a group of young people in this age of a wandering Earth came out ...
'The Wandering Earth' ('Liulang diqiu'): Film Review
Gwo maintain a laser focus on his core audience, and so keeps the story, such as it is, honest: This is ultimately a very Confucian tale of an honorable father, his bitter but ultimately ...
Review: "The Wandering Earth" Is China's First Breathtaking Sci-Fi
The Wandering Earth is China's biggest sci-fi flick to date. Directed by Frant Gwo of My Old Classmate and starring Wu Jing of Wolf Warrior 1 and 2, The Wandering Earth was one of the most anticipated films of 2019. The film is based on a short story by Liu Cixin, whose flagship work The Three Body Problem was originally supposed to receive the cinematic treatment before production issues ...
The Wandering Earth Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 1 ): Kids say ( 2 ): This is a bombastic Chinese take on the blockbuster sci-fi movie. The special effects and computer graphics are truly incredible in nearly every scene. The detail and chaos of a world that seems to be in a constant state of crumbling is epically rendered. It's a ludicrous concept, but for those ...
'The Wandering Earth' Review: China's First Sci-Fi Blockbuster Is A
'The Wandering Earth' Review: China's First Sci-Fi Blockbuster Is A Spirited But Overlong Spectacle By Hoai-Tran Bui / Feb. 27, 2019 8:00 am EST The Wandering Earth plays like a sci-fi movie made ...
The Wandering Earth review: A massive epic about humanity
The Wandering Earth works as a huge sci-fi action film but suffers from some dullness in some characters. A few have huge personalities, but they can feel like they belong in a different movie or ...
The Wandering Earth (2019)
The Wandering Earth: Directed by Frant Gwo. With Jing Wu, Chuxiao Qu, Guangjie Li, Man-Tat Ng. With the sun dying out, a group of brave astronauts set out to find new planet for the whole human race.
THE WANDERING EARTH 流浪地球: One Giant Leap for Chinese Cinema
Gravity was $100-130 million. Even Armageddon, a film that is over 20 years old now, costed $140 million to make. The fact that China pulled off a film on the scale of The Wandering Earth on a budget that's one third the general budget of a Hollywood epic is a ridiculously impressive achievement.
The Wandering Earth
For the most part, The Wandering Earth stuffs its 2 hour film full of big action set pieces and impressive CGI effects to hide the simple plot and storytelling. These special effects are outstanding though and really help elevate this one. It really is a visual treat too and everything from the costume design, art, aesthetic and lighting are on ...
Movie Review
The Wandering Earth, 2019. Directed by Frant Gwo. Starring Jing Wu, Chuxiao Qu, Guangjie Li, Man-Tat Ng, Mike Kai Sui, Jin Mai Jaho, Hongchen Li. SYNOPSIS: Sometime in the future, the sun is dying ...
The Wandering Earth (2019)
With the budget and resources on hand, Frant Gwo's film always looks amazing and the set-pieces are copious and exhilarating. Yet, also much like any good disaster/epic sci-fi movie, the film comes with its fair share of cheesy, annoying and thinly written characters. Coupled with the unnecessary family strife, 'The Wandering Earth' does ...
The Wandering Earth
The Wandering Earth (Chinese: 流浪地球; pinyin: liúlàng dìqiú) is a 2019 Chinese science fiction film directed by Frant Gwo, loosely based on the 2000 short story of the same name by Liu Cixin.The film stars Wu Jing, Qu Chuxiao, Li Guangjie, Ng Man-tat, Zhao Jinmai and Qu Jingjing. Set in the far future, it follows a group of astronauts and rescue workers guiding the Earth away from an ...
MovieBob Reviews: The Wandering Earth
Read the full review: https://www.geek.com/movies/moviebob-reviews-the-wandering-earth-1777653/Website: https://www.geek.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/geek...
Film Review: "The Wandering Earth"
In an effort to understand why, I looked into both the film itself and Netflix's distribution of it. "The Wandering Earth," directed by Frant Gwo, is an interstellar space epic based on a short novel of the same name by Liu Cixian. It is set in the future when the Sun has rapidly transforming into a red giant capable of engulfing Earth.
China challenges Hollywood with own sci-fi blockbuster
"The Wandering Earth fills the gap in Chinese science fiction movies. It means that China's science fiction movies have officially set sail," one fan of the film wrote on the review site Douban.
The Wandering Earth II review
The Wandering Earth II review - blockbuster Chinese sci-fi prequel veers off course. This article is more than 1 year old. Frant Gwo's follow-up to his 2019 mega-hit favours special effects ...

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Reviewed at Greater Union Film House, Adelaide, Feb. 26, 2019. (Original title: “Liu lang di qiu”)

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