The Wandering Earth (2019)

26 October 2019

The Wandering Earth (or �浪地�, 2019) is a disaster movie about the Earth needing to leave our solar system to avoid the extinction of the human race. It primarily follows the story of a Chinese family (lplayed by Jing Wu, Chuxiao Qu, Man-Tat Ng, and Jin Mai Jaho), where the father takes a mission on a pathfinder space station, while leaving his son and grandfather with the underground Earth colonies.

The story line reminded me of the Neal Stephenson book Seveneves, that was also about mankind's survival - in that case the Moon smashed into Earth and made the planet uninhabitable for millennia instead. This tale had an Independence Day (1996, 7/10) flair to it, with the action style and problem solving getting thrown in the film, though to be fair the propulsion units also reminded me of the ID4 alien ships.

I don't know much about Chinese cinema outside of what the internet tells me, so I can't speak to the actors' reputations. However the acting was good and clear. The visuals were pretty stunning, and although I tire of heavy CG films this wasn't painful to watch at all. A few times it felt a little formulaic, but the action, suspense and story stayed interesting and engaging. I enjoyed the film a fair bit, in spite of it being a little over the top. 8/10