The Wandering Earth: Best Reasons to Watch China’s Second Highest Grossing Film

China’s second highest-grossing movie of all time, The Wandering Earth, is the nation’s biggest spectacle to date and further proves the point that the Chinese Film Industry can hold it’s own when it comes to executing big-budget sci-fi films which are parallel to their Hollywood counterparts in terms of quality and scale. I had the opportunity to watch the movie on Netflix recently and here are the primary and the most intriguing reasons why you shouldn’t miss this humongous sci-fi-disaster-drama.

1. The Ambitious and the Ridiculous Concept

Based on the novella of the same name by Locus Award, The Wandering Earth deals with quite a ridiculous and an implausible subject.

In the delicate future, the sun transfigures into a raging red giant spitting fire outrageously which in turns prompts the world governments to unite under one big umbrella called the United Earth Government. UEG proposes a new plan to move Earth out of our existing solar system by constructing giant thrusters at an angle which enables Earth to move without rotating on its axis.

Insane! Isn’t it? And The Wandering Earth is probably one of the best disaster movies I’ve seen in a very long time. Not because of the crackpot concept, but, the filmmaker never backs down or shies away to make this an emotionally-investing and by and large an entertaining film. It certainly has more than a few ups and downs throughout the narrative, but it keeps the viewer engaged with giant action-set pieces which only be engineered flawlessly with first-class visuals.

2. Visuals and Scale

Talking about visuals, although it’s unfair to compare the CGI to other big budget Hollywood films, The Wandering Earth held it’s own as far as believability goes. Director, Frant Gwo made sure that his canvas is substantial and the visual effects blended in with the narrative flawlessly. There isn’t a single moment in the movie where the visuals felt inferior or inconvenient to watch all thanks to the terrific technical crew who took the challenge and made sure that they delivered from top to bottom.

Overall, The Wandering Earth is a spectacle to watch even on your 42-inch TV and will remain as a prime example that a movie can deliver when you’re able to blend an ambitious concept with superlative visuals immaculately.