Film Review: The Wandering Earth II (2023) by Frant Gwo

Considering the huge box office success of the initial film, it is no surprise that a sequel would soon arrive, with Frant Gwo continuing the saga based on Liu CIxin's short story, with a prequel this time.

The Wandering Earth 2 is screening in the US exclusively in Theaters and IMAX Starting January 22, courtesy of Wellgo USA, and in UK & Irish cinemas for Chinese New Year, 27th January, courtesy of Trinity Asia.

The story begins in the early days of the Moving Mountain Project, with a coalition of the world's nations having decided to place huge machines in strategic locations around the Earth in order to move the planet away from the dying Sun, while additional ones in the Moon are to move that planet away from Earth, in order for the latter to avoid the former's gravitational pull. While all this will be happening, a number of the population will be placed in underground facilities, which leave, though, a large part of the planet's inhabitants simply to die. Expectedly, strikes and riots all over the world have already started happening, with the protesters supporting an alternative plan of the whole of humanity being digitized and moved into a virtual reality world.

It is in this setting, we get re-acquainted to Liu Peiqiang, who, as the movie begins, is about to undergo a competition to be an integral part of the program, along with people all over the Earth, who, thanks to a particular translating contraption everyone wears on their helmet, can speak their own language. It is during this time that Liu meets Han Duoduo, also a candidate with impressive skills, with the film moving into romance territory in this introductory scene, before a terrorist attack to the escalator towards the Moon, makes the whole thing an action again.

The second axis of the movie focuses on Tu Hengyu, a man who is still suffering from the trauma of his lost wife and little daughter, Yaya, and is secretly trying to create an AI of her, thus moving towards the alternative plan mentioned before. His obsession with this plan eventually jeopardizes the whole main scheme, while the scientists and politicians of the planet, under the leadership of Chinese Zhou Jiech, are trying to deal with the many problems their plan faces.

To begin this review, let us put the most obvious issues under spotlight first, before moving to the pros. At almost three hours, the movie definitely overextends its welcome particularly after the narrative moves into the repeated tactic of “problem appears, problem is solved”. Furthermore, the propagandistic elements are once more all over the place, with the Chinese official being the ultimate leader, the Americans impatient buffoons, and phrases like “Duty above all” and official salutes being spread all over the place. Lastly, the melodramatic aspect does not work at all, while I am sure any kind of scientist will probably jump from the window both from the main premise of the movie and a number of other details.

That aside, however, and considering that the movie is an action/sci-fi above all, and that the three hours actually leave a lot of time for the many pros to also shine, “The Wandering Earth 2” is actually a lot of fun. The humorous romance, and in general, the brief moments of humor here and there work quite well, with the whole concept of the red roses bouquet being one of the most amusing in the movie.

Secondly, the action scenes are truly outstanding, with Frant Gwo including all blockbuster fan-favorite elements in the book within his film. Martial arts, drone fights, dogfights in the sky, guns, robots fighting terrorists are all rather impressive to watch. In this aspect, however, the moments where the movie truly shines are the sequences of disasters which are truly of epic scale, either on Earth or the Moon or within Space, with the SFX finding their apogee during the plethora of those moments, which are presented here, in abundance. In general, the visual aspect of the movie is truly top notch in sci-fi terms, with all the aforementioned locations plus the various bases outside the Earth being presented in the most imposing fashion. Add to all that moments of agony regarding the fate of a number of protagonists, which is also intensified by the use of frequent countdowns on screen, and you have the backbone of a movie that is rather entertaining.

Lastly, the charisma of the main protagonists also carries the film for much of its duration, with Wu Jing as Tu Hengyu, Andy Lau as Tu Yuheng and Zhi Wang as Duoduo filling the screen every time they appear on it.

“The Wandering Earth II” follows the “rules” of the Hollywood blockbuster. It doesn't stand up to any kind of scrutiny, logic is thrown out of the window, but it is almost constant fun to watch and a film that will definitely satisfy all fans of sci-fi action.