Remember four years ago in 2019, Chinese science fiction circulated this sentence?
"The Wandering Earth opened the door to Chinese science fiction, and Shanghai Fortress closed that door again."
No Chinese science fiction has been able to open this door again in four years, and today "The Wandering Earth 2" is here! It not only reopened the door of Chinese science fiction, but also brought Chinese science fiction to a new level.
First, "The Wandering Earth 2" takes over the previous work and continues the miracle of "Chinese science fiction"
In 2019, the originally unpromising "The Wandering Earth" was released in the Spring Festival file, and became the champion of the 2019 Spring Festival with only 10% of the initial counterattack, and ranked fifth in the box office of Chinese film history with a final box office score of 4.68 billion yuan.
Looking back on the beginning, "The Wandering Earth" was not favored by the outside world, and even said that it was not good inside and outside.
Outside, the domestic film industry is very weak, and there are few resources for science fiction films with strong visual effects technology. Internally, Guo Fan was still a small director at that time, and the filming of "The Wandering Earth" frequently broke out due to lack of funds and fell into the storm of stopping filming. (Of course, everyone knows the story behind)
Although "The Wandering Earth" is from the hands of the sci-fi boss Liu Cixin, compared with the award-winning and famous "Three-Body Problem", the novella "The Wandering Earth" is still a little strange to the public.
But it was such an unpromising movie that opened the prelude to the "first year of Chinese science fiction".
Today, four years later, "The Wandering Earth 2" has been released under the expectation of everyone. Although it is a sequel, its story content is actually a prequel to the previous work.
The content mentioned by "Han Ziang" in the previous work, such as the earth's stagnation, sea level rise, and global riots that exist in flashback fragments, are fully displayed in this part, the space elevator crisis in 2044 and the moon fall crisis in 2058, these contradictions and conflicts not only clarify the entire story line for the audience, but also enrich the world view of "wandering earth".
After taking over, "The Wandering Earth 2" did not disappoint fans and fans who had waited for four years, with a comprehensively upgraded visual effects spectacle and a tight plot rhythm, it scored a high score of 8.2 in more than 420,000 people on Douban, surpassing the 7.9 points of the previous work, and gained 83% freshness and 95% audience love on overseas Rotten Tomatoes websites.
"The Wandering Earth 2", which has been released for only four days, has won more than 2.1 billion box office, achieving a win-win situation at the word-of-mouth box office, and is continuing the miracle of "Chinese science fiction".
Second, the visual effects have been comprehensively upgraded, and the new height of Chinese science fiction has been created
Remember the shock of the long shot at the beginning of "The Wandering Earth"?
Receding from the ground, it skimmed all the way through the planetary engine, the atmosphere, and finally flew away from the Earth and looked at the distant sun.
This soaring long shot, whether it is the smoothness of the arrangement and the delicate content of the picture, is incomparably close to Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters.
Four years later, in "The Wandering Earth 2", Guo Fan once again used the same method to present the world's tallest building - the space elevator, but the familiar formula brought a new shock.
This time, the ascension shot takes the space elevator as the main body, and following the high-speed movement of the main body not only poses a higher challenge to the smoothness of the picture, but also has complex elements such as mechanical combined movement, flame and ice changes in the process of the space elevator, which is a huge challenge to control the rhythm.
In the end, "The Wandering Earth 2" lived up to expectations, not only surpassing the previous work in one fell swoop, but also bringing the audience a new sense of shock. When you sit in the auditorium and watch this long shot, you will be absolutely breathtaking and passionate.
The visual effects of sci-fi films have always been the weak point of the domestic film industry, and many so-called "sci-fi giants" movies in China have all returned home after their release, and even before the release of "The Wandering Earth", they were not favored by the audience.
If we say that "The Wandering Earth" "slapped the face" audience four years ago, it set a benchmark for visual effects in Chinese science fiction. Then, "The Wandering Earth 2" can be said to be a new height in the level of visual effects of Chinese science fiction movies.
Take this space elevator defense battle, the big melee between drones and fighters from bullets and explosions, to the fall of the space elevator and the fall of the space station, vividly showing the blood of air combat and the fierceness of war.
The special effects shots of "The Wandering Earth 2" have increased from more than 2,200 in "The Wandering Earth 1" to more than 6,000, which is not only more than double the previous work, and even the live-action studio area has increased by 10 times compared to the first one, reaching 1 million square meters, equivalent to 126 football fields.
It is said that the investment cost of "The Wandering Earth 2" is as high as more than 1 billion yuan, and it can be seen from the visual effects alone that every penny is really spent on the blade, and once again presents a Chinese science fiction masterpiece for the audience and fans with its own sincerity, and brings Chinese science fiction to a new height.
Third, the discussion and thinking of scientific and technological people, this is real science fiction
Although "The Wandering Earth" is based on the science fiction novel of the same name, it does knock on the door of Chinese science fiction, but strictly speaking, "The Wandering Earth" is a disaster film rather than a science fiction film in the true sense.
What is a science fiction movie? Science fiction films show concern for political or social issues, as well as philosophical aspects such as the human condition.
The root of the story of "The Wandering Earth" is the Jupiter crisis, and how to solve the Jupiter crisis to promote the development of the plot.
"The Wandering Earth 2" is completely different, it not only shows the political contradictions and social conflicts in the implementation of the "Wandering Earth" plan, but also discusses and thinks about the social ethics and morality of the "Digital Life" plan, as well as the social problems brought about by the development and use of artificial intelligence.
During the implementation of the "Wandering Earth" plan, the politics of various countries took their own interests as the starting point and constantly questioned and obstructed the implementation of the plan. The public's lack of understanding of the "Wandering Earth" plan and the unfair distribution of resources have led to the full-scale outbreak of the space elevator crisis in 2044.
The "Digital Life" project was originally created to be able to perpetuate human life and civilization, but it was terminated because the ethical problems it raised could not be reasonably resolved. Andy Lau's "Tu Hengyu" is precisely to use "digital life" to extend his daughter's life, which led to the moonfall crisis in 2058.
The "The Wandering Earth" series also has an extremely important character, which is "MOSS". The artificial intelligence that was burned by Wu Jing's wine bottle in the previous work, not only describes its origin and development in detail in this part, but also explodes in Easter eggs behind the 2044 space elevator crisis and the 2058 moon fall crisis, in fact, there are "MOSS" secretly planning and promoting.
Artificial intelligence has always been an inevitable topic in science fiction movies, and whether to let it develop or limit it has become an important topic worth thinking about. I believe that the next "The Wandering Earth 3" will continue to discuss these issues.
The "The Wandering Earth" series, which does not blindly stand still and only pursues visual effects, has moved from a disaster film to a real sci-fi movie. Just like the "Wandering Earth" project reveals the strong local feelings of the Chinese people, taking their homeland to find and wander together, "The Wandering Earth 2" has entered a new stage and height with Chinese science fiction.
Even if "The Wandering Earth 2" cannot become the ceiling of Chinese science fiction movies, it is also an indelible classic of Chinese science fiction movies.