The 2019 Chinese blockbuster, The Wandering Earth, was a film I greatly enjoyed, and it even made my top 50 list of that year. It was a ridiculous, but thoroughly joyous sci-fi extravaganza that really puts China on the map when it comes to VFX driven blockbusters. It was also a vibrant and optimistic film, despite the apocalyptic setup, setting up a world where people of all countries unite for a common cause instead of selfishly fighting through their own divides. While this doesn’t have a novel to fall back on like the first, the same creative team is back with director, Frant Gwo, and his returning co-writers, Gong Ge’er, Ye Ruchang, and Yang Zhixue.
The Wandering Earth 2 is actually not a sequel, though. It is a prequel that explores the tumultuous and exhaustive process of getting the Moving Mountain Project off the ground, in a manner of speaking. It the very same project that we see come to fruition in the first, the giant engines that literally push the Earth away from its current danger, which comes in the form of a sun about to burn out, and those problems ultimately extend to the moon itself. But it is no easy task as scientists, engineers, and politicians face backlash from a panicked public, attacks from terrorist groups, and some sketchy artificial intelligence.
The film is big, and when I mean big, it’s a true epic that spans the globe, across several decades, and with multiple story threads and characters, some familiar, some new. We have the diplomat Zhezhi Zhou (Li Xuejian), astronauts Liu Peiqiang (Wu Jing) and Han Duoduo (Wang Zhi), scientist Tu Hengyu (Andy Lau), and a whole slew of smaller side characters of different nationalities and varying qualities in their dubs. Sometimes it can feel a bit unwieldy at times, balancing all these people, and their stories, but Gwo knows how to make each passing moment count, and when he leans on the melodrama, it works really well.
Of course, it also should be mentioned just how spectacular the whole experience is. It’s arguably more expansive and ambitious than the first, and the level of VFX work involved here is staggering. And yet, it all comes together beautifully. There are some wonderfully staged setpieces, and moments that linger on imagery that I can pretty much guarantee you won’t see elsewhere. Though, some parts of the last third might remind you of Moonfall, but frankly, it tops the mayhem from the film by a long shot.
What ultimately makes The Wandering Earth II work so well isn’t just the astounding visual effects, it’s the care and attention paid to the emotional stakes of the characters. You buy into their journey, and you feel for them, and it’s presented with so much earnestness that you can’t help but get swept up in it. In a way, it’s arguably more of an emotional roller-coaster than the first, especially when you get into the last act, it can be very moving at time. At a runtime of nearly three hours, there are points where you feel the length, but there is so much jam packed in here, there isn’t much I can point to and say, “that wasn’t needed.” Plus, a film as big and bold as this practically begs for a runtime as excessive as its visuals and its action. Would I call it a better film than the first? It’s hard to say because they are both operating on a somewhat different wavelength. I might prefer the world-building and the over-the-top setpieces of the first, but I think I was more emotionally haunted by this one, not to say it isn’t also fun or that the first one wasn’t an emotional experience. It just feels like that specific feeling was more of a focus this time around. I am still very impressed by what Frant Gwo and his team were able to accomplish here, and whether he explores this world further or tries something totally new, I can’t wait to see it.
The Wandering Earth 2 is now out in theaters.