Just in time for the Lunar New Year, Well Go USA opens a prequel to the 2019 blockbuster hit, The Wandering Earth II (or EartII, as the poster has it) expands on the original, building a thoroughly convincing sci-fi future on an enormous, imaginative scale. The epic scope and frequently extraordinary visuals almost make up for a weirdly prosaic plot that mimics just about any outer-space movie.
Based on a short story by Liu Cixin, the 2019 movie found the planet Earth being used as a sort of rocket ship to escape our expanding and exploding sun. 10,000 engines propel Earth towards the Alpha Centauri system, using Jupiter as a gravitational slingshot. Since the planet no longer rotates, its surface is frozen, with survivors living in underground cities.
The prequel starts several decades before the 10,000 engines are installed. Experiments with “digital life” vie with UEG (United Earth Government) rocket tests. Terrorists attack launch sites as Tu Hengyu (Andy Lau) learns that the plug is being pulled on his digital life program.
Tu is trying to resurrect his young daughter Yaya, killed in a car crash. So far he can interact digitally with her for two minutes, the limits of the 550A computer. Disobeying his boss Zhao Ma (Ning Li), he continues work on vastly more powerful 550C computer. Before the movie ends he’ll be taking over a 550W unit—the same one that becomes the evil MOSS system.
Meanwhile, Liu Peiqiang (Wu Jing) takes astronaut training, where he meets Han Duoduo (Wang Zhi), a beautiful and extremely competent officer. Liu is bringing her roses when they are trapped by terrorists aboard an earth elevator rocket. In a masterfully staged sequence, they survive the explosion of both the elevator and their compartment.
Wandering Earth II flows along the decades until the first movie begins, with director Frant Gwo staging showpiece after showpiece with remarkable confidence. Solar storms damage a research center on the moon, a tsunami floods New York City’s UN headquarters, a flotilla of rockets floats through space, riots disrupt food lines, robots go berserk.
The filmmaking style is fluid, involving, with visual effects on a level with Hollywood efforts. Take three shots after a bomb detonates inside a capsule: close-up of Liu, one of Duoduo, then a shot of her visored helmet floating between them, with perfect reflections tied to effects out the capsule window. The only real problem is Gwo’s use of anti-aging software. In his shots as a youngster, Wu Jing looks a bit unrealistic, his face digitally scrubbed. The wonderful Ng Man Tat also looks unconvincing in what appears to be a shot repurposed from the original film. (Ng died in 2021; the movie is dedicated to him.)
The movie intersects with other sci-fi titles; whether it’s borrowing or influencing is not always clear. That space elevator looks a lot like the one in Foundation; the digital life issues mirror those in Jung_E. Like 2001, every computer, every surveillance camera, every network is a potential danger.
On the downside, the plot works up one too many do-or-die crises, ending in a laughable sequence in which Tu operates a computer keyboard underwater. One more strange choice is how the film uses titles to tell you what will happen. “Roche limit reached in 3 days,” a wife “who will die in 84 days,” “Lunar crisis in seven days.” It’s almost as if the filmmakers didn’t trust the plot, and tried to jolt viewers into paying attention.
None of this really matters in the end. The Wandering Earth II is so well made that it’s easy to overlook its flaws. Gigantic and intimate at the same time, it’s an extremely effective sci-fi blockbuster, with superstar performances from Wu Jing and Andy Lau.
Directed by: Frant Gwo. Cast: Wu Jing, Li Xuejian, Ning Li, Andy Lau. Director of Photography: Michael Liu. Editing Director: Ka-Fai Cheung. Edited by:Ye Ruchang, Yan Tingting. Co-edited by: Ye Xiang. Original music by: Roc Chen.
Photos courtesy Well Go USA
