Wandering Earth is a Chinese sci fi film based on the novel by Liu Cixin. The movie begins with a scene between a young boy and his father. They are sitting in a postapoclyptic world looking at the sky. The sun has aged at this time and turned to a destructively hot red giant. Many people now live in space centers away from the planets. Seventeen years later, the father finishes a mission as an astronaut. The son is involved in a mission to help Jupiter with a gravitational pull away from the burning sun. The father, Liu Peiqiang, is in hibernation and breaks out when he learns that astronauts are not helping humans escape Earth.
The son's group arrive at the space station to pull Jupiter but meets challenges. They convince other countries to help. However, the final sacrifice that saves the planet is when Liu Peiqiang sacrifices himself and flies into Jupiter. There is an emotional exchange between the father and son over their walkie talkies. Looking at the movie from the aspect of gender and generation, many of the heros are men and the women are the ones in need of help. The generation of the father is more willing to sacrifice to save the world while the son wants to stay alive with his friends and "go back home".
The special effects of theis movie is grand and similar to American action movies. The topic of the world reaching its end because of environmental issues is a realistic fear we face these days. I thought it was great that a Chinese movie showed this, being a country that creates a lot of waste from production. This movie follows a similar plot as many sci fi movies I have seen before. I enjoyed the relationships and character develeopment. I did not like the overdramatization of the problems and how women were portrayed as more needy.
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