Movies in General

Not Three Body Problem but one of Liu Cixin's short stories is coming out into theaters!

 

I think the critics flopped it. I believe it was more because of Jackson's approach rather than the story concept.

 

Here's a slightly longer trailer. It gives a better introduction to the movie.

 

So I watched The Wandering Earth today.

I'm very impressed. The visual effects, cinematography and the sound effects/design and music were very good, and on par with other blockbusters of this scale from Hollywood. I've read that something like 75% of the special effects were done by Chinese studios as well, which surprised me.

The high concept sci-fi of Liu's original short story are very much still there but they wisely introduce characters and plot devices that make an adaptation of his short story a viable movie.
I'd describe it as halfway between armageddon and interstellar but in many ways more high concept than either.

There are a few pacing issues and a few plot holes or plot devices that weren't well explained, but the overall story was very solid and made the world feel very lived in. The characters weren't all fleshed out but everyone served their purpose very adequately and given the ensemble of people to take note of I think they did fairly well.. The scale of what was depicted felt breathtaking, and does the original concept of earth engines full justice.

I also appreciated the international theme and background of the plot. Without going into spoilers, while the movie focuses on Chinese characters, the sheer size of the global effort involved of many, many different nations. Characters of different backgrounds were shown speaking their mother tongue, which was also a very good decision. The movie does show Chinese characters saving the day yes, but the characters in the film were just one of many similar groups around the world of different nations struggling and contributing equally to the same goal, so it's far from the kind of "yeah go China!" tone from something like Wolf Warrior 2.

TWE has a very good chance of igniting sci-fi as a popular film genre that domestic Chinese film makers can pursue, and it is a great start for the first serious attempt at a blockbuster, high concept sci fi from China in its history.


China's film industry aside, TWE at its core is still a very good sci fi blockbuster that can stand on its own two legs, and if you like the action sci fi genre I think TWE offers some new breathtaking concepts previously unexplored, while also portraying some existing antecedent ideas in a fresh manner, wrapped with a plot that moves at a gripping pace.

8.5/10

 

I do not understand Chinese, and reading the translated dialogue for long periods distracting and tiring, I found Travis Johnson's movie review most useful.

https://www.flicks.com.au/reviews/c...-wandering-earth-might-be-the-best-sci-fi-mov

Chinese blockbuster The Wandering Earth might be the best Sci-fi movie of 2019..............

I found some of the Scenes outside the Space Station than those shown in "Gravity"

 

I watched Alita Battle Angel. I remember hearing this manga was being filmed into a movie a few years ago. Supposedly the visual FX weren't up to quality that they had to redo the entire movie. The budget supposedly went up to $200 million. Because of that there will probably won't be a sequel. The movie ended with a non-conclusion. It's supposedly battling with that Rebel Wilson comedy movie for first place for this weekend's box office. I enjoyed it until that ending. I guess there were five manga books so they were planning four sequels. The final battle didn't feeling like a boss battle.

 

Just watched "Wandering Earth" yesterday.

I am not ashamed to say that I was bawling my eyes out five minutes into the movie. Yes, seriously!

I especially loved Wu Jing and Wu Mengda's performances. In fact, the older Wu's performance was so different from his usual antics, that I didn't recognize him until the end credits!

 

Some thoughts about "Wandering Earth":

- I saw the Avengers End Game trailer just before this movie. Coincidentally enough, both movies deal with the loss of half the world's population. In Avengers, however, you never really feel that loss despite how the characters react, because as the audience, you get the feeling that the loss is reversible. The same cannot be said of Wandering Earth. While it is unfair to compare a trailer to a full movie, I really liked how Wandering Earth peppered the movie with small scenes that showed the emotional impacts of this loss. From Lao Han describing where Duo Duo came from, to Wang Lei yelling about how his wife and kids died for nothing, to Lao He looking at an old, cherished, note from his mother.

- The scene near the end where they are pushing the percussion pin reminded me of Red Sorghum. Even in a Science Fiction movie, Chinese directors find a way to put in a scene about the strength of human labor. LOL!

- Liu Qi is probably a reference to the "left behind" children in China, where the parents go to work in cities, and their kids are raised by the grandparents back in their village. Some reviewers claim Liu Qi's initial motives were incomprehensible. Duh, he was trying to run away from his dad.

- Minor nitpick: the space shots of Earth depict it as the classic blue marble, but if everything is frozen, shouldn't it really be a uniform white?

- I laughed at the "durian flavored earthworm jerky".

- Minor nitpick #2: if Lao Han is from Shanghai, why doesn't he speak with a Shanghai accent?

- The 2500 year thing threw me off at first. I took me a while to realize that the movie wasn't set 2500 years in the future. I was wondering why Chinese culture changed so little in 25 centuries!

- Wu Jing was amazing. Between this and Wolf Warrior 2, he's now my favorite actor!

 

I haven't watched it yet, so I could be wrong, but let me make some guesses for fun.
1. You will be right if it is sea blue. But if it is LIGHT aquatic blue that is perfectly the colour of glacial ice. When deep frozen, there won't be any moisture in the air, so no flaky snow cover which would be white. It all depend on how long the earth has been into deep frozen glacial era.
2. If Lao Han is merely working and living in Shanghai, but not born in and not native to Shanghai, he can have any accent. My parents are from Shaanxi, but during the first 10 years my mother had clear Shaanxi accent. While I was born in Beijing and have typical Beijing accent (not 100% standard Mandarin).