Movie Review: The Wandering Earth

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Hey Jesscientists

Since there's nothing decent on cinema or the small screen lately I thought I'd take a chance and check out an Asian blockbuster for a change. The Wandering Earth is currently on Netflix and is basically China's answer to Armageddon but without an Asian Bruce Willis or Ben Affleck. In the history of space annihilation movies, the genre has been pretty decent so I thought it would be worth 2 hours of my life.

The premise of the movie is distinctly outlandish so I was also keen to see how they justify everything and exactly how they were going to pull off this pretty bold story.

wandering-earth-movie-poster.jpg

Image source: - channelnewsasia.com

What is The Wondering Earth About?

When the starts its process of dying out it starts becoming unstable and is expected to expand and consume the Earth. World governments stand behind the solution – to dot the planet with 10,000 gigantic jets and blast out to orbit on a 100-generation journey to a new home 4.2 light-years away.

The people of Earth build giant thrusters to move the planet out of orbit and sail to a new star system in an epic last stand for human survival.

What I thought of The Wondering Earth

I'm not even going to give this movie props for possible lost in translation here and to be blunt the main characters suck. The main protagonists, a brother and a sister, are depthless and one dimensional and have some of the best deadpan acting I've seen in a while.

The two are the most unlikable characters I've had to put up with in ages. The sister literally spends 90% of her lines crying or shouting for someone to save her. The brother is arrogant and apparently a "genius", yet seems to have no redeeming qualities.

There is only the thinnest veneer of characterization and it's incredibly cliche. There is a rebellious kid who misses his father, a wacky weird side-character with funny hair, a father who had to leave his son, an army guy bound to duty, a comedic genius computer guy. Except none of these characters have chemistry.

The rest of the cast are all forgettable cannon fodder and could all die off and you wouldn't care a single bit.

I'm baffled by this film and the positive reviews at all, if it were an American film I'm sure we would have torn it a new one.

The story is basically trying to take the best bits Armageddon, Interstellar, Gravity, 2001, and 2012 all mashed up into a barely coherent mess that you can't make heads or tails of, I struggled to pay attention and that wasn't even because of the Mandarin it was just really bad.

The CGI is decent at times and at other points its barely passable fora 90s flick, I may sound snobby but this movie doesn't have much going for it apart from the concept itself.

My rating for The Wandering Earth

Its ambition is clear from the start, and with a premise that's reminiscent of real greats of modern sci-fi, it should have been an elegant, moving and majestic watch. However, with a generic plot, bad acting and reliance on special effects, fantasy mumbo jumbo and chaotic action all fail and it misses the mark of executing a good movie.

Pretty sure the novel it is based on, would be a better option for anyone interested in the story.

I'll have to give this movie 3 Earth Engines out of 10

Could this even happen?

The reason I actually watched this movie is because of this YouTube video, I actually saw it first and decided I had to check out the film. In this YouTube video by because science, he explains how insane the concepts explored in this movie are and why they could never work.

Have your say

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So have at it my Jessies! If you don't have something to comment, simply comment "I am a Jessie."

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aaa realityhubs neoxian palnet stem
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23 comments
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Please save the STEM tag for stem-related content.

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(Edited)

Yeah tell him, jeez he is such an abuser. I can't even believe I associated with the guy. Thank you for pointing that out :)

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How was I supposed to know a movie about Space Travel doesn't constitute STEM?

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Fokkol stem in space nie bra.

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Lol, You should actually be a whale in that community because you're always plakking stem!

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Movie reviews are not STEM-related. Just because it is space-themed doesn't make it a post about STEM.

If you spent a lot of time talking about scientific concepts in the movie instead of pointing people to a video and saying it's a space movie, then yeah I can see it being STEM-related.

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(Edited)

I ended up watching John Wick... and being so bored I had it play in the background while I minecrafted. So I will be avoiding this one completely. Thank you. !tipuvote 1

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Lol I feel like I should just give up on movies and start reading more books, I'm just constantly disappointed. Also, I'm taking my newfound powers for a test drive lets see if this works !ENGAGE 20

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Yip nothing on fmovies I go through it once a week or so and it all is shit. Check out @rhethypo he has 2books that are pretty damn good and you can also get @dreemsteem book on scribl don't tell her it is good. Book two should be out soon also. Then I got quite a few books and all the pratchett if you want haha

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Hehhehee you are so selfish with those compliments, you brat!!!

Thanks for the promotion... And book 2 ...yep. published within the next two weeks :)

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Please note however...

@rhethypo's book = pretty damn good
My book = good

😒

Ok ok! His was pretty damn good. Especially the one with you-know-who 😍

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Lol where do you even find the time to right a book? I struggle to even put together a shopping list!

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LOL turns out ... when you leave the platform, you find all kinds of time for cool things! hehehehe

I actually wrote the first book while i was on steemit - but it took considerably more time . When I left the platform - i finished the second half of the second book in 2 weeks and wrote the first half of the third book in 2 weeks :)

now... i'm taking a break from Fireflies for one week to dedicate every free minute to reformulating Spunkee Monkee. I'm EXTREMELY excited! ideas are going nuts in this noggin of mine :)

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gah! wrong account. this is dreemie - of course

i was wondering why my vote was only worth 0.01 hahahaha

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You need to own more token

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LOL looks like I'm a broke ass, I was sold a lie! 1000 Engage to distribute is a lie, you here me

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Lets try this one more time !ENGAGE 10

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haha thanx. I shall bury my 10 engage under a tree and hope it grows :)

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Hi, @chekohler!

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Hi @chekohler!

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