The world was a very different place when The Wandering Earth came out in 2019, and The Wandering Earth 2 meets our changed world with a completely reimagined sequel, or rather prequel. Based on Liu Cixin’s short story of the same name, the first was a high-octane space disaster film, much like Geostorm (2017) or Moonfall (2022); the second is an episodic series of futuristic project management nightmares, resembling less of a Roland Emmerich picture and more of a dialogue-heavy PRC mix of Shin Godzilla (2016) and Don’t Look Up (2021). And as you gather from that description, the differences are basically upgrades.

A terrorist attack on the space elevator, a plot to nuke the moon, and a global internet outage are just three in a series of problems faced by the Chinese-led United Earth Government (UEG) in their efforts to avoid planetary destruction as the sun will soon become a red-giant that will engulf the Earth. (In the end, as we know from the first film, the Moving Mountain Project successfully builds the 12,000 planetary engines necessary to renovate our home into a “wandering Earth” and initiate a new post-Anthropocene geological age.) Littered to the brim with striking compositions and beautiful CGI, there are noticeably fewer lengthy and outstanding action sequences than the first, though it’s still a much better film. Gwo and company spend more time with the dramatic speeches of governmental agents and trying to juggle a half dozen major themes, including but not limited to the hellscape of a completely digital life, the problems created by globalization (especially as it pertains to the internet), and good-ole unity. 

Continue reading at the Boston Hassle.