Chinese director Frant Gwo may have just delivered the first bonafide China blockbuster and you’ll be able to enjoy it soon from the living room.
Netflix has made a name for themselves in the last five years producing their own films and series. Even picking up three Oscars this past weekend for Alfonso Cuaron’s impeccable dream like Roma. This year, Netflix is planning on producing something like ninety-five films. However, they are still in the business of picking up those films and series that they know will be talked about and gather steam through word of mouth. They passed on the apparently abysmal Holmes and Watson and they give The Office an opportunity to keep gathering more and more fans by the day (even after being off the air for six years). The people curating the options for Netflix seem to be pretty great at picking films even if their algorithms keep recommending me to watch the same fifteen movies. There are great things to keep finding on the streaming platform.
They passed on the apparently abysmal Holmes and Watson and they give The Office an opportunity to keep gathering more and more fans by the day (even after being off the air for six years). The people curating the options for Netflix seem to be pretty great at picking films even if their algorithms keep recommending me to watch the same fifteen movies. There are great things to keep finding on the streaming platform.
Last week, it was announced that Netflix had purchased the recently released Chinese Sci-Fi epic Wandering Earth for streaming at some undisclosed time in the future. This is not surprising, there are a lot of great films that you can stream on Netflix to give you glimpse into the great offerings from India, South Korea, Japan, and other foreign markets.
The movie has been out for about three weeks and has already raked in well over $600,000,000 in China. One of the largest box office hits for the country and emerging Mandarin film studio. Here in the States Wandering Earth is playing in only 64 theaters and flying under the radar. But when I realized I was close to one of those theaters I was wanted to see what had drawn such a large number in China and the attention of Netflix. Would an outlandish sounding disaster flick hold its own with the other offering in streaming?
The synopsis for Wandering Earth hit all the points for any typical disaster flick following a group of flawed people attempting to save the last shreds of humanity. The sun is dying, this will take out any hope for life on Earth if not the entire planet. The population has formed the United Earth Government and implemented the plans to construct 10,000 high power thruster engines strategically located across the globe. These enormous fusion powered engines will propel the entire planet of Earth on a 2,500 year journey through the universe to another galaxy with the hopes of finding a living sun that won’t destroy all of humanity in a fiery death. Sounds insane with little hope of success.
The story is split between those on earth living in underground cities constructed well below each of the engines and those on the guiding space station that is leading the way towards a new frontier. The main characters are Dr. Liu Peiquiang and his son Qi. Dr Liu is one of the astronauts who is on the space station while Qi is left on earth with his grandfather. Now remember this is disaster film ratcheted up to eleven so everything goes wrong at the right moments to propel these guys through an onslaught of action and meeting the needed supporting characters to move planet along its trajectory. You really don’t need much information on the details of the character populating the film. They are barely introduced and fit the standard molds for the genre. However, they are pretty enjoyable to watch at parts and some of the emotional scenes work despite all the flaws. This is all set well into the future and some of the technology is awesome with most character equipped with exoskeletons and rail guns and massive vehicles to crash and destroy whats left on a decaying earth.
At just over two hours, the film still felt cramped. There are obvious places where they cut scenes with no regard for continuity, making it feel like things come out of nowhere without explanation. With absolute frenetic editing and some shaky camera work, it can be easy to lose track of who is who and what is going on in certain scenes. Several plot lines are heavily condensed leaving one questioning where people came from or where the entire United Earth Government officials even reside let alone their motives for forced tension. It seems as if they had a three hour film that they stuffed haphazardly into a desired 125 minute runtime. There are plenty of epic shots of planets nearly colliding and massive spaceships that should leave you in awe but they are cut quickly and don’t quite leave the wanted impression that similar films such as Sunshine and Interstellar succeeded at. We simply don’t get to enjoy the grand scale of some of the special effects and that is a shame. On the smaller set pieces in frozen cities, the film looks great and works, but those are lost in the shuffle of the larger set-pieces.
Overall, The Wandering Earth is absolute bonkers in all the best ways, typical in the worst ones. It isn’t on par with the more serious films in the genre but it displays a lot of talent from an emerging studio and new filmmakers. This is an attempt to meld together 2001: A Space Odyssey and Armageddon. One that works best in the theaters and obviously has worked exceptionally in it’s home market of China. The movie is big and over the top with some scenes falling flat. But anyone with a soft spot for bombastic disaster films with everything being thrown against the wall will love what sticks. Sadly, the thrilled parts will probably feel downgraded when seen on a small screen; ultimately becoming lost in the enormous queue of Netflix.
We have no idea when Netflix will release The Wandering Earth. When they do and you decide to watch it, make sure you have the largest screen possible or go and see it at one of the few cinemas playing it in the states.