Disaster movies seem to scratch a very specific itch for some people, one that requires ground-breaking earthquakes, city-sized sinkholes, and waves as high as the heavens to be satisfied. While not reaching the heights of some of the more excessive catastrophe movies out there, Li Jun's flawed but fun “Shattered Earth”, also known as “Cloudy Mountain”, is sure to tick the boxes for disaster porn junkies.
Yizhou Hong (Yilong Zhu) is a proven mountain climber and geologist who is concerned with geological anomalies present at a railway tunnel building site. Unfortunately, he's proven right, as a sudden shift in mountainside terrain leads to natural disasters springing up in nearby towns, with even greater destruction on the horizon. Together with his ex-railway soldier father, Yunbing Hong (Zhizhong Huang), Yizhou must use his skills to save as many people as he can and prevent untold natural carnage from being unleashed from the mountains.
It'll be no surprise to learn that the plot for “Shattered Earth” is about as silly as it sounds, but the film certainly knows its limits. While the opening portion of the narrative might suggest a non-stop CGI cataclysm, the plot settles down somewhat and actually offers some nice character work. Such disaster films are often plagued with throwaway, superhuman leads who somehow manage to literally outrun impending doom. However, there's more to Yizhou's unflinching machoism than meets the eye, as we learn more about the character's childhood traumas and how they've almost irreparably damaged the relationship with his father. It should be noted that Zhizhong Huang is a domineering presence as the affable Yunbing and is easily the most compelling figure, as he leads a group of misfit survivors out of a mountain cave that appears to have no end.
Like with many disaster movies, “Shattered Earth” logically falls apart whenever we focus on the ‘science' behind the carnage. The railway tunnel under construction is given a comical amount of importance – at one point, the choice between saving the tunnel or the population of the nearby town is seriously debated. While the distracting science-babble and silly stakes aren't too bad in their own right, their focus does detract from the superior sub-plot, that being Yizhou and Yunbing's mountain cave escape. The only time the wider story becomes interesting is when increasingly far-fetched plans are executed to counter the effects of an inevitable landslide. The outlandish and explosive finale features a laughably implausible plan of action that departs from some of the more grounded scenes featured earlier in the film. But let's be honest, you're not watching “Shattered Earth” for realism, and nor should you be expecting it.
So, we've established that “Shattered Earth” is kinda dumb, but is it fun? In a word, yes, but perhaps not in the way that you'd expect. While the movie has been marketed as a Roland Emmerich-like disaster movie, complete with building-sized explosions and gargantuan sinkholes, very little of the spectacle involves these grander set pieces. Instead, most of the tension and excitement comes from Yizhou and Yunbing's death-defying rock climbing, first to escape the mountain cave and then to save the town and, of course, the tunnel, from destruction. As with much of the action, the urgency of these climbing sequences is fuelled more by the breakneck editing than any actual stunt work, but they're engaging nonetheless, with every trip and slip along the mountainside inducing a heart-in-mouth feeling.
When it comes to the grand-scale action and set pieces, the film delivers on silly, over-the-top, and explosive visuals. Funnily enough, the relatively low stakes mean that the large-scale destruction never wanders into the territory of being excessive, with CGI-dominated sequences used sparingly. Barring the frankly terribly edited opening scene, during which one area of the tunnel is hit by surprise flooding, the scenes of natural disaster are restrained in their presentation, exciting to watch, and oddly grounded, despite more than a few scientific liberties being taken. Intentional or not, the geologically caused carnage leads to moments of hilarity, notably a passenger car fiercely colliding with a derailed train in mid-air – standard disaster film stuff.
As far as big, loud, silly disaster movies go, you can do far worse than “Shattered Earth”. There's a surprising amount of heart to Li Jun's film, even if it can become bogged down in melodrama. Thrills and suspense are found in abundance, alongside some nifty character work, which makes for a rather entertaining experience overall.
