For those who don’t know, The Wandering Earth movies are going to be China’s Marvel franchise. Taking a fun sci-fi premise – the Sun is dying and the Earth has to move to a new Solar System – the first Wandering Earth was a joyous Roland Emmerich-y blockbuster but filtered through a Chinese point of view, giving the disaster movie a fresh spin. The Wandering Earth 2 continues in the proud franchising tradition: make your movie bigger, and get an origin story in there somewhere now that your premise is set. At nearly 3 hours, Frant Gwo’s burgeoning franchise crams in anything and everything to make sure our Wandering Earth history is fully explored and we have no questions about how The Wandering Earth made it to Jupiter in the first one.
A la Independence Day, The Wandering Earth 2 takes a bunch of disparate stories and puzzle pieces them into place where the first movie starts. At this point in time (2044), Earth is still in place, but Zhou ZheZhi (Li Xuejian), Hao XiaoXi (Zhu Yanmanzi) and the United Earth Government (UEG) representatives know the Sun is dying, and are making preparations to plan for the future. One such plan is moving Earth from our solar system to Alpha Centauri’s, 4.2 light years away, where Liu PeiQiang (Wu Jing) and Han Duoduo (Wang Zhi) are entry level astronauts working on Earth and the Moon to prepare for departure. The other project going on is the Digital Life project where Tu HengYu (Andy Lau) and Ma Zhao (Ning Li) are planning to move human brains into computers, transferring their material life into a digital one. Furious philosophical and physical debates and fights ensue.
While most Roland Emmerich movies usually are built around Will Smith punching an alien or something like that, The Wandering Earth 2 has more on its mind than just macho fistfights. This is as dense of a sci-fi movie as I’ve seen since Arrival, and one of the most philosophical mass entertainment blockbusters in a long time. The first half of the movie spends extensive time debating which of our two options humanity should take: move the planet or become digital entities. The Wandering Earth 2 never completely takes one side either, legitimately showing the pros and cons of each choice, and how flawed human decision making can equally derail both options. Despite the out there premise, Frant Gwo really tries to ground everything in reality, showing all sorts of real world protesting and hacking tactics to impede both of the projects as much as possible. He then rewards the audience’s patience with a really fun setpiece, the first taking place on space elevators and aerial atmospheric space battles. Then after that guttural high, we go back into the boardrooms with more debating and computer processing/problem solving.
Similar to the first Wandering Earth, the Chinese version of a disaster movie takes different directions than their American counterparts. While the American film might firmly put Liu PeiQiang or Andy Lau in the larger than life “a hero can save us” camp, Chinese beliefs very much fit the “duty above all else” philosophy. This means the movie praises the collective over the individual, as each of the heroes does their part to make sure humanity can survive, flaws and all. And still, Gwo weaves in little subtle individual wins too, particularly Andy Lau’s tormented scientist, who really has an emotional character arc in this movie. With so much thought going on while cramming two world hopping giant storylines into one mega film, The Wandering Earth 2 can get a little lost with what it’s doing for a few minutes, but Gwo always manages to bring everyone back in time for a big finale. And, I’d rather have a movie try to do too much instead of coast on its past success like most overrated sequels.
I admire Frant Gwo’s faith in humanity. The Wandering Earth 2 has a sweet positive outlook on the world, showing how we can rise to the occasion when the situation demands it. I am also excited to see what Gwo has in store for us before we get to Alpha Centauri. With 4.2 light years to go, we have endless places and contacts our Wandering Earth can experience. Exciting!