The Wandering Earth II – A Bloated Blockbuster (Early Review)

The original The Wandering Earth was an epic Chinese sci-fi blockbuster that went on to gross almost $700 million at the worldwide box office following its release back in 2019. With that, a sequel was inevitable and now that time has come with The Wandering Earth II. As the franchise moves forward, this sequel goes back to the beginning of how the Wandering Earth project came to be. Surprisingly, there is a lot of story there if the near 3-hour running time was of any indication. It may be a lot on paper but that being said, more isn’t always better as it expects audiences to follow quite a handful of moving parts that come and go as it builds a narrative that heads towards what they already know is coming for the most part. Now did the film have to be nearly 3 hours long? That answer is clearly no, however, it still delivers much of the same thrills and emotion of its blockbuster predecessor although one enveloped in near-odious amounts of cheese and unintentionally hilarious dialog that are surely the result of some lines being lost in translation. Perhaps succumbing to some of its ambition, it definitely could have been cut down as it bogs down the pacing as a whole as its parts somewhat outweigh their whole.

The Wandering Earth II takes place in the near future where much of the world is on edge upon the news that sun is on a crash course to burn out and swallow Earth. As a result, the solution seemed to be to build a series of huge engines to drive the planet towards a new solar system and out of reach of the sun before it was too late. Suffice it to say that this process wasn’t so straightforward as the project faced plenty of opposition in the form of an alternate yet more controversial survival method driving dissent on a worldwide level and to an extent, within the ranks of the then Moving Mountain project, despite being banned by the United Earth Government. As far as the Moving Mountain project was concerned, the work back on Earth was just as important as the work done on the moon. Science was one thing but bureaucracy was another as the project did not stand a chance without cooperation on a global scale. However, that wasn’t always necessarily a sure thing. The ultimate goal was to stop the moon and its gravitational pull from hindering the Earth’s eventual trajectory out of the solar system.

Meanwhile, there would be a lot more to that story in many subplots occurring on Earth and on the moon, showing the many sides of the issue. As the world was debating the merits of committing to banned controversial digital life technology versus that of sticking it out with the Moving Mountain project, legions of scientists, soldiers, and astronauts were working behind the scenes to convince the world that the latter was possible in the midst of mass skepticism and distrust. The process of proving the feasibility of the project was not without its issues, not counting the aforementioned ones, as technical issues, worldwide government bureaucracies, and other unforeseen circumstances to contend with. However, all those involved had their own motivations for being involved in the project, be it personal or ideological. The extended running time can mostly be attributed to these subplots which drag more often that not but admittedly do provide some character development that plays out over the course of a 20+ year span. Nevertheless, there are real stakes to be had here even though the film is a prequel, as the film offers a fair share of thrills and tension not to mention emotion across several big action set pieces.

Just like the original Wandering Earth, while the VFX of The Wandering Earth II are mediocre to bad for the most part, they did not make for that big of a distraction. In fact, they add to the film’s charm. While it’s incredibly cheesy and derivative along with everything else, there’s some fun in that. In terms of performances, the Chinese characters fared much better than the rest as the language barrier affected the chemistry and the dialog did not do them any favors, providing most of the film’s unintentionally hilarious moments. As far as Chinese cast is concerned, Lau and the returning Wu as Tu Yuheng and Liu Peiqiang were the best, particularly Lau who has the biggest arc of the film. Wu simply made the best out of what was an underwhelming role here.

At the end of the day, The Wandering Earth II is more of the same, literally. Fans of the original will be right at home but for others, it is simply a fun, mindless watch though the running time may limit its accessibility for a wider audience. Regardless, there’s more wandering to come.

still courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.