To save Earth from colliding with Jupiter, a group of young people must work together to save humanity. Despite an enormous ambition and budget, the film is let down by one-sided characters and sometimes excruciating dialogue.

The Wandering Earth is by far the biggest science fiction film made in China. Based on the book of the same name, with a production budget of $45,000,000, this is a major milestone in China's film industry.

In the near future, the Sun has begun to expand, and within a few years all life on Earth will cease to exist. Humanity then hatches the idea to build 10,000 giant mountain-like engines that will cover half the earth's surface, and turn the earth into a giant spaceship that will then fly away from the sun in search of a new source of energy. I'm not making this up.

During the flight from the sun, the surface of the earth is frozen and all the people have been moved to underground cities, but one day two young people want to sneak up to the surface and experience it for the first time since the expansion of the sun started. Suddenly, they are drawn into a rescue mission, when Earth's engines stop working and must be repaired before our planet ends up on a collision course with Jupiter.

This film is ambitious. Incredibly ambitious. We get to see everything from gigantic, detailed space stations, to frozen cities, to pictures of planets that could just as easily be beautiful paintings. It's noticeable that a lot of time and money has been spent on the production value, and it makes the whole film feel bigger than many other disaster films we've seen in Western films in recent years.

There are exceptions when it comes to special effects though. Unfortunately, the characters spend a lot of time driving around in cars, and the car chases look like they're from any playstation game from 2004. It's immediately apparent that it's 100% made in a computer, and it's eye-popping when you see it.

As ambitious as the film is, it is action-packed. It feels like they have moved away from the classic structure with three acts, and instead went straight to the third act. You start the film with a disaster, and from the fast start the film doesn't want to slow down. It is certainly something that is common in disaster films, but it would have been nice to have a couple of scenes where you can catch your breath. However, the film gets better in the second half, when the main characters come together and are given a mission that is easier to follow.

What brings this movie down is unfortunately the characters. One character is supposed to be a typical humor sidekick, but just comes across as a screaming, annoying form of Jar Jar Binks. Another should be the restrained protagonist who only sees darkness and negativity. It is hard to care about them when they are so one-sided and exaggerated in their behavior. Then add that the supporting characters spend a lot of time in their spacesuits, which makes it difficult to keep track of who is who.

Something else you could have put more love into is the dialogues. At times you might think that a beginner has written them. When our main antagonist tells his sister about the 10,000 engines and why they exist, it's clearly a conversation that exists for us as the audience to get that information. The sister of course already knows this, as it's the reason they've been living underground for 10+ years.

Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time getting into The Wandering Earth. After a bad start with subpar special effects and hard-to-love characters, I can't appreciate the huge spectacle that the second half of the film offers. It's ambitious, lavish and brave, but when I don't get a sensible human entry point, it stops at superficial fireworks instead of something deeper.