The Wandering Earth 2 is now playing in U.S. theaters from Well Go USA Entertainment. The film will open in UK and Irish cinemas beginning January 27 from Trinity CineAsia.
Director Frant Gwo’s The Wandering Earth, the inaugural adaptation of the titular hit novel upon which its brand new sequel out this Chinese New Year is based, ends in such a way that you probably didn’t think it would have a successor. I can’t say this would be the case for those who’ve read the original book, but Gwo gets all the kudos for not only diving deeper into the story this year but also expanding the narrative for everyone who’s been a fan of this screen property for the last four years. The return of actor Wu Jing into the frame makes this film another discernable entry for the actor who has been fleshing out more and more dramatic delivery with roles that are just as demanding in physicality. See The Battle At Lake Changjin 1 and 2 and The Climbers as other noteworthy examples of late.
The addition of the formidable Andy Lau also antes things up for the newest chapter from Gwo, with Lau bringing extra and equal layers of depth and upheaval to the continuing storyline written by Gwo and co-scribe Gong Ge’er who helped pen the first film. Remarkably, the sequel we all now know simply as The Wandering Earth 2 is a near-three hour-long affair; The first film was closer to two hours, which makes Gwo’s latest a distinctively more epic trial, with particular insight into the origins of the story, setting the timeline back nearly fifteen years earlier before the events of the first movie – that is, in which mankind galvanizes efforts to create a massive series of engines to move the Earth to avoid a major cataclysm that now threatens to wipe out the solar system.
Gwo’s successor details the parallel story arcs centered around two key characters in The Wandering Earth 2, with Wu reprising his role as Liu Peiqiang, here an aspiring astronaut and trainee for the United Earth Government’s earlier iteration of the global campaign to relocate the planet. As the UEG struggles with running its research facility on the moon to test the feasibility of the project itself, it is also cornered with the backlash of a terroristic campaign obsessed with the Digital Life Project, a floundered experiment in which humans can theoretically go on living in the digital world. Such is the kind of endeavor that has taken the interest of UEG researcher Tu Hengyu who expresses a distinct keenness for access to the technology for personal reasons. It’s also the possible root cause for a mysterious calamity that ensues on the Moon when the test-engine ruptures, forcing the UEG’s hand and commencing a race against time to start the Earth engines and collapse the now-disintegrating Moon before it crashes into the planet.
Without going into too many of the specifics in The Wandering Earth 2, Gwo’s follow-up offers more in its exposition introducing Wu Jing’s character and his origins, including his family with actress Wang Zhi who plays another astronaut in training with some pugilistic skills of her own. For this, Wu’s character also gets to throw down a bit with some screen fighting for a brisk moment making up for the lack thereof in 2019’s installment, which adds to some of the more atmospheric action sequences for a nice little touch, including an aerial dogfight between jets and a massive army of drones. The battles add to the mystery of the events as they ensue while we continue to observe the more tortured role portrayed by Lau. Actor Li Xuejian takes on the supporting role of the Chinese delegation of the UEG, who has to tread the political minefield at times, doing so with a more reserved and resounding calm than his peers. It’s one aspect of his character which at times feels more whimsically implied and a little forced, although it’s less cumbersome than the typically more bloviating and cartoonish characterizations of the non-Asian roles – specifically Caucasians, with at least one major UEG central operator broaching things much more disagreeably and toxic toward in the latter half.
Lau’s performance is worth every bit you see on screen after so many trailers and promos and logline info not particularly delving much into his purpose for being in the story. His and Wu’s characters only manage to cross paths with each other once in a major sequence when Wu’s character undergoes a stress test, and it’s right then that you get a glimpse that both characters are making, or have made, sacrifices that join them exponentially in their similarities with one another. It’s an ominous bit of foreshadowing when you take in all the factors being dealt in Gwo’s hand, including the more political and uproarious and social fallout that occurs in the story permeating the first film’s more novel themes centered on mankind’s unity against a common threat, literally taking and flipping it on its head so as to eerily remind us of just how much mankind could take a page or two from its own more recent, ensnared history dating back to the global pandemic in 2020 with so many lessons yet to be truly learned.
This, coupled with the more technological and hardware aspects of the film and analyze how all of these factors play into the story’s culmination, sci-fi fanfare aside, makes it all the more interesting to see how The Wandering Earth 2 unfolds. Time alerts chime in every now and then to remind the viewer of when the next page-turning catastrophe or event occurs, so you’re already handed a window into what may already happen. Alas, as Ralph Waldo Emerson or someone just as wise as him once said, “It’s the not the Destination, It’s the journey.” Indeed, the one Gwo humbly invites fans to take in The Wandering Earth 2 is one which, unequivocally, I recommend doing.
