2023, Frant Guo (The Wandering Earth) -- Amazon
In the first movie, either I misunderstood some things about the Sun dying, or they created this movie to purposely explain some of the things that didn't make sense in the first movie. Yes, the sequel to The Wandering Earth is a prequel, and to be fair, its a proper prequel meant to chronicle the time between deciding to attach rockets and the test of the first rocket. Oh, and the blowing up of the moon. And the invention of AI to help with the control of the rockets.
Of note, someone was listening to my brain. One of the 31 "story ideas" in my head is that the invention of sentient AI is an accidental side-effect of the creation of a computer that is capable of doing the calculations for FTL travel.
The problem with "chronicling the time" is that they wanted to do the span of years, but they also wanted to retain characters we can relate to and root for, so the entire time period between "oh shit, we have to do something!" and first rocket test is barely one generation. No matter, hand wavey time!
So, we begin not long after the discovery that The Sun is dying. They fill in some blanks from the first movie and explain, which I believe is the correct astro physics, that its not that The Sun will burn out and leave the solar system dead cold, but that the quickly dying sun will expand and consume the entire solar system. NASA (IRL) isn't sure The Sun would actually eat us, but they also say it will happen in 6 billion years, not next week, so what do they know. And with this discovery, there are only two solutions: fly the Earth to another solar system, or .., convert everyone to AI so they "can live forever". A very big conflict in the movie is the dispute between what the real choice should be, enough that there are violent rebellious forces that want to bring down Big Rocket.
So, we answered one question and introduced another head scratcher. Why is the AI idea a viable solution? AI requires computers, computers require power and an actual place to house those computers & their power source. If The Sun consumes the solar system, bye bye computers and bye bye AI People. They could have mentioned an idea to build a colony ship that would have AI People on it, instead of living people, but nope, just, "WE SHOULD ALL BE CONVERTED TO AI !!"
Sigh.
The movie begins, post explanatory prelude, with the new teams joining the Space Force funded by all the Governments, ruled by the United Earth Government based out of NYC but mainly controlled by China's generous understanding of everything possible and industrious workforce. A space elevator has been created so they can collect resources from The Moon. But the AI People contingent attack! For some reason, they are so incensed with the Big Rocket idea that they have to destroy it all! The opening attack segment is exciting, a CGI extravaganza full of death and flying machinery and explosions and heroic sacrifices that bond some of our potential heroes. The AI People contingent is inevitably defeated but they do destroy the space elevator. Alas that somehow that doesn't deter Big Rocket's contingency plans. Whatever, hand wavey time!
Oh yeah, they are also building rockets on the moon, so they could move it out of the way. This is where we begin a significant subplot (main plot tangent?) of using an advanced quantum computer bolstered by AI to help with the Big Moon Rocket testing. This particular AI also happens to have the digital consciousness of the late daughter of one of the engineers. Big Moon Rockets are a success. China leads the building of the remaining Big Rockets on the Earth's equator.
Time passes. People get cancer.
It is at this point I realize I dont' really care about the melodramatic tribulations of any of the characters. One main character has cancer and will die, but her husband wants to secure a spot for her in the Big Cities Under the Rockets. Other Main Character is still trying to get his digital daughter into a bigger AI so she can "live a complete life". But I don't care, as I am just enjoying all the CGI tech.
I was never really sure, but I think AI Daughter Guy, who is pissed he hasn't been provided a proper quantum computer for his daughter, uploads her anyway, which is ... connected to the AI computers on the Moon, which causes them to malfunction, which causes them to blow up, which causes the Moon to start to fall. Uhhh, guys, wrong movie. So, to stop The Moon from joining forces with The Sun to fuck up The Earth, they collect all the nuclear missiles and bombs on Earth and deliver them to The Moon to blow that fucker up. They also want to early ignite some of the Big Rockets so they can scoot The Earth over to the left, out of the way of The Moon debris. Yeah, I am pretty sure that is not how gravity works. Whatever, hand-wavey. Also, the nuclear option hits a snag, so they send 300+ astronauts to The Moon with hand-detonators to make noble sacrifices.
BUT, and if you haven't guesses yet, there is one challenge after another in this movie, there is another problem. Years ago they turned the Internet off (cuz, reasons), which they now suddenly need so they can properly ignite Big Rocket to scoot The Earth out of the way. So, not just quantum computer AI but also Big Network to connect it all together. The root server is in Beijing, under water, so deep sea diving scientists have to go there and reboot things, which again involves fuck ups and noble sacrifice. It also makes use of AI Daughter to properly ignite the rockets and The Earth flies away into the wild black yonder.
Waitasec. Wasn't a critical plot of the first movie also all about doing final tests on Big Rocket before igniting them and flying into the wild black yonder? I had assumed this movie's ending was just about scooting out of the way, but the final scenes implied they were actually beginning their journey.
In the end, I guess I was entertained enough to finish it but not entertained enough to re-watch the first movie. I can only assume the third movie will pick up near the end of the journey, some 2500 years in the future when they arrive at Replacement Solar System and... well, probably have to blow up a planet that is sitting in the spot The Earth will need, or some other such nonsense.
P.S. Terrible movie, great poster.
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