THE WANDERING EARTH (流浪地球)

A FRANT GWO FILM

I wanted to see this one but was laid up when it was in the cinema. Based (loosely) on the three body problem trilogy by Cixin Liu , worth a read IMO.

I saw the trailer to this last month, it looks ridiculously expensive and fun - some huge set pieces .. I mean huge!!

yes

looks tremendous craic

the earth is saved entirely by a chinese team (inc.one sino-australian blond called tim, who is a comedy feature plus the central non-schoolkid character's boss is russian and nice but not around for long)

when the EARTH UNITED GOVERNMENT features -- it's not evil but its judgment is poor sometimes -- it is invariably voiced in FRENCH, well done this film :D

the all-powerful HAL-style computer is called MOSS and is even more of a dick than HAL (inc.unlike HAL when the central non-schoolkid character wakes up from hibernation and realises something is wrong MOSS keeps telling him to go back to BED like a very patient but actually exasperated parent)

Sounds like some of the science in this movie is in the best tradition of such end days classics as The Core/2012/Knowing..and erm.. the non-boring bits of Melancholia..

the science is fine once you remember that the HERETICAL VIEWS of IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY have been SUPPRESSED by the eatablishment, which FEARS THE TRUTH

https://www.velikovsky.info/wp-content/uploads/velikovsky-profile.jpg

queuing up

just saw on Mark's twitter the other classic of this genre I was reaching for and couldn't remember earlier was The Day After Tomorrow, of course.

it's not always easy to follow

not 'alf, feels like it's been edited down from something twice as long. it just adds to the fun though.

"Jupiter has captured earth's atmosphere!"
- idk still looks pretty windy down there.

need to see this as soon as possible. produced for a fraction of the budget as yr typical stormer, friends have said 'this film's the moment when Hollywood's been proven bloated and irrelevant'

sanity has kept me from starting a Three Body Trilogy thread on ILE but it deserves one

Based (loosely) on the three body problem trilogy by Cixin Liu , worth a read IMO.

Surely it's based on the Wandering Earth novella by Cixin Liu?

I wasn't too impressed with the second act fetch quest but things really picked up after that. Voice acting was terrible except for the two Sikhs implored to help rescue THE ENTIRE PLANET who intone in perfect deadpan:

"i don't understand, why are these people still trying?"

"it's a waste of time don't bother"

Oh and apparently Jupiter only captured about 1 trillionth of the earth's atmosphere, which explains the wind.

both of my favorite reviews are in the stranger, first one about the blink-and-you-missed-it US theatrical release emphasizing Liu's contributions (the stray ideas from his story rescue the film), second about how netflix has intentionally buried it

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/02/19/39095465/the-wandering-earth-is-an-okay-chinese-blockbuster-buoyed-by-liu-cixins-astonishing-ideas
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/05/07/40130715/why-are-americans-ignoring-the-most-important-movie-of-their-times-chinas-the-wandering-earth

I must admit I came to the second-highest-grossing non-English language film of all time expecting something a little less Western in style. second act is on action-movie autopilot, fast cuts all the way through, nothing remaining of Liu's story. but even there -- frozen Beijing, an iceberg engulfed by the tsunamis caused by halting the earth's rotation, then frozen as they left the Sun's orbit, and casually breezed-through plot points like 3.5 billion being considered expendable -- wow is that Chinese

how many other people have finished Three Body Trilogy?

I read the whole trilogy but was pretty baffled and zoned-out by the end and don't remember much of it now - need to re-read, I think.

I read the Three Body trilogy recently, loved them. It's cool how each book expands the scope so much, and each chock full of interesting ideas. Haven't seen nor read Wandering Earth yet

it's the rare trilogy that saves the biggest ideas for the second half, and the ending just somehow expands without losing the theme, at the exact point that most writers start mechanically stitching up loose threads

just curious because a few trusted friends did bail out before the end of book one. I totally get requiring plausibly human dialogue - maybe that's a translation / cultural thing, but like the Foundation trilogy, much of that is also the point when the main subject is history, haplessly served by the characters. one scene that really stays with me is the tombstone as perceived by the ant crawling around on it, allowing you to read the tombstone without leaving the frame of ant consciousness. "you're bugs!" etc

definitely recommending it to just about everyone but it is huge, so... hopes were high for this film being watchable. I think most US watchers might find the action-movie structure imitative and sub-Marvel, but for me right beneath the surface style, every cultural / visual marker gave food for thought. would watch again in the right context (& especially on a bigger screen - the visuals were ridiculous - if they did this for $50 million, it is admittedly a wake-up call)

Only halfway through this so far, but I don't think the visuals are all that great. I mean i like the grander, planet-sized vistas, but every sort of close up all-CGI scene, like the vehicles racing around the world, look like sub-AAA videogame cutscenes. I did spend 10 minutes at the start of the movie engaged because it felt a little off, and a big blockbuster feeling a little off, a little unlike what's expected, is welcome. But from then on the characters just got dumber and more one-dimensional, the acting is bad and the action unexciting.

Let's see how it ends!

xp the friend I recommended it to also got stuck early in book 1. the comparison to Foundation is a good one - both are much more focused on ideas and systems than characters or dialogue, and I'm not surprised to see people dislike them on those grounds. somehow Three-Body has even less memorable characters than Foundation, not that it hurt my enjoyment of it at all

Re the trilogy, I was enjoying it with reservations until the end of book one properly introduced the aliens, and they were as boring as fuck.

lol this film is so good

I started this:

We Are Bugs in this thread for The Three-Body Problem 三体 and its various adaptations

Saw this yesterday v enjoyable.

"and casually breezed-through plot points like 3.5 billion being considered expendable -- wow is that Chinese"

Thought this one was OK to explain away with the drawing of lots but maybe people couldn't build underground cities fast enough, plus a lot of ppl died in events like floods

Thought a lot of that section is the nearest to the kinds of things that are coming with climate change :-(

But it had to zap through. Didn't understand a lot like, what is Moss' game here? It was very funny how he was overcome, biggest laugh from me.

Quite like to read the story.

apparerently it's abt three bodies and this problem they have