Wandering Earth 2 Review
Jan. 23rd, 2023 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoGot to watch this in the theater today. Brought my mom and my cousin who was visiting us for CNY. Some thoughts...
The good:
- SFX is good, definitely on par with the average hollywood blockbuster; good to see the chinese movie industry getting this far. The space elevator scenes were cool.
- Heartwarming moments were heartwarming. Teary moments appropriately teary. It could be that I'm part of the targeted demographic (ie chinese) for the storytelling. But it did hit the right emotions when needed for me.
- I personally liked the attempt to be inclusive in the scope of the movie. Yes, the main focus were on the chinese heroes and their heroic moments, but that's just expected like we expect the americans to be the big damn heroes of american blockbusters. Aside from the main characters, there's certainly a better range of representation of nationalities, genders, languages... than many american shows (that make a big production of being diverse...)
- A new appreciation for a certain MV. =P
The meh:
- While I, being fluent in english and chinese, found the movie to be very friendly to me in terms of language, I can understand that other people might have more difficulties. There's a lot of english speakers in it, so chinese audience would have to rely on the subtitles just as much as the english audience would have to for the chinese parts. Can lead to confusion for people who can't read fast enough. Not sure there's a solution to this issue though.
The bad:
- The plot...eh, I was aware of the silly premise that was already revealed in the first movie, so went into this with the brain turned off. And there are certainly a lot of plot holes, and lack of explaining a lot of stuff the story just takes for granted but makes you go "what, what about...". Then in addition to that, there's some convolutions to the plot. As it is, my mom walked out of the theater not having understood several core elements of the story and I had to explain it to her.
- I had been reading other reviews that complained about the length, and I did feel the stress of sitting there for 3 hours (the last hour of which I was studiously trying to ignore the bathroom urge). There does seem to be some bits that I feel could have been chopped or simplified. Or maybe a shorter theatrical version and then a longer extended cut? That way you can sell it twice.
Overall: 8 out of 10 maybe? Would like to watch it again (main struggle here is my paranoia of going outside while COVID is still lurking).
EDIT: Want to add my cousin's feedback on the movie...
She liked it and felt it was better than a lot of American blockbuster movies she'd watched, in terms of SFX, theme, and drama. She definitely felt the distinctively chinese cultural differences in the movie, and felt it was new and interesting. For example the emphasis on family and community over the individual, and the focus of the sci-fi on megastructures and communal projects rather than the more western staple of starships/age of sail theme.
The good:
- SFX is good, definitely on par with the average hollywood blockbuster; good to see the chinese movie industry getting this far. The space elevator scenes were cool.
- Heartwarming moments were heartwarming. Teary moments appropriately teary. It could be that I'm part of the targeted demographic (ie chinese) for the storytelling. But it did hit the right emotions when needed for me.
- I personally liked the attempt to be inclusive in the scope of the movie. Yes, the main focus were on the chinese heroes and their heroic moments, but that's just expected like we expect the americans to be the big damn heroes of american blockbusters. Aside from the main characters, there's certainly a better range of representation of nationalities, genders, languages... than many american shows (that make a big production of being diverse...)
- A new appreciation for a certain MV. =P
The meh:
- While I, being fluent in english and chinese, found the movie to be very friendly to me in terms of language, I can understand that other people might have more difficulties. There's a lot of english speakers in it, so chinese audience would have to rely on the subtitles just as much as the english audience would have to for the chinese parts. Can lead to confusion for people who can't read fast enough. Not sure there's a solution to this issue though.
The bad:
- The plot...eh, I was aware of the silly premise that was already revealed in the first movie, so went into this with the brain turned off. And there are certainly a lot of plot holes, and lack of explaining a lot of stuff the story just takes for granted but makes you go "what, what about...". Then in addition to that, there's some convolutions to the plot. As it is, my mom walked out of the theater not having understood several core elements of the story and I had to explain it to her.
- I had been reading other reviews that complained about the length, and I did feel the stress of sitting there for 3 hours (the last hour of which I was studiously trying to ignore the bathroom urge). There does seem to be some bits that I feel could have been chopped or simplified. Or maybe a shorter theatrical version and then a longer extended cut? That way you can sell it twice.
Overall: 8 out of 10 maybe? Would like to watch it again (main struggle here is my paranoia of going outside while COVID is still lurking).
EDIT: Want to add my cousin's feedback on the movie...
She liked it and felt it was better than a lot of American blockbuster movies she'd watched, in terms of SFX, theme, and drama. She definitely felt the distinctively chinese cultural differences in the movie, and felt it was new and interesting. For example the emphasis on family and community over the individual, and the focus of the sci-fi on megastructures and communal projects rather than the more western staple of starships/age of sail theme.
