The Wandering Earth (2019) – Review

During the past month it was impossible to visit any of the big movie sites without reading the new about Avengers: Endgame shattering various records about the money it has made. Most film news is about American movies, but did you know that The Wandering Earth, a Chinese movie, which is now available through Netflix also managed to set some interesting records? Its box office made it the second best Chinese movie ever, at a global level it’s third for this year and it also has a place in the top 20 of highest grossing science fiction movies ever. And still few people know about this movie, which is really weird. But for the average viewer movies aren’t about the money they make, but about its content. Is this disaster movie, which plays out on a cosmic scale, worth watching?

When the sun suddenly starts to expand, the end of humanity seems near. Countries are starting to work together, a “United Earth Government” is formed, and the solution that is devised is to build huge jet engines all over the Earth that can be used to fly the planet to another solar system by navigating towards Jupiter and use gravity as a slingshot for further acceleration. The project is realized, people start living in underground cities and a huge space station is flying in front of the earth. But as you’d expect from a good disaster movie, not everything goes according to plan and it is up to a small group of people to solve the problems so that everyone on earth can survive.

 The Wandering Earth follows the template of other disaster films in every respect. The central story is the relationship between a man who works at the space station and his father and son who are still on earth. When our planet comes close to Jupiter and everything goes wrong the viewer is treated to huge natural disasters and many spectacular moments. The quality of the CGI used varies greatly (the shots in the space are beautiful, but images of vehicles and various places on earth look like they are made with a powerful game engine). The same goes for the story. It was originally even more extensive, but several parts had to be cut for budgetary reasons. That sometimes results in strange character moments or incomprehensible actions, but fortunately not in such a way that it ruins the film. The Wandering Earth clearly borrows elements from 2001 and other well-known disaster films. For fans of the genre there is much to enjoy and the concept of the earth being propelled by rockets, a moment when someone is so angry with Jupiter that he is firing his machine gun at this huge planet and some bizarre moments to solve a very big problem are enough reasons to add this movie to your Netflix list as soon as possible.

[score7]