Surprise, surprise ... the big Chinese movie of the year is another complete and utter mess. They can throw money at anything, but they have not even learned the basics of how to make a motion picture. It goes on forever, one more superb CHINESE idea to save the world after another. The plot is illogical. There are lots of things that do not make sense, such as a lack of connecting scenes, very little spacial awareness and sense of proximity, and visual effects that look out of a 2004 video-game. And there's the most Chinese-looking token foreign guy for all the Chinese to laugh at, while the super serious, very clever Chinese astronauts are to be respected. On the whole it's another shoddy blockbuster from China. It's a pity that Chinese viewers also have no pedigree when it comes to plot coherence and quality screenwriting. The Chinese film industry can keep churning out crud because viewers are satisfied with national propaganda, cheap spectacle, second-rate technical capability, and racist humour.

Based on the trailer I was expecting some kind of Chinese Armageddon film, and for some part this is that, but where I adore Armageddon, this film also copies other films, like Space Odyssey and it mostly a mess. The first half is very pedestrian and actually pretty boring, I was tempted to take a nap. In the second half things do get a bit more interesting when the intensity increases of the mission nearing its end. And the film is quite a spectacle too, it operates on a huge scale of fricking earth movement, we have deaths, explosions, space exploration, there's a bit of wonder to it all as well. The scope of the film is admirable, there's some cool sci-fi elements and entertaining shots here and there that kept it from really being a drag. But it really tries to do too much, and making me feel numb to it all. The film is very much a continuation of just clearing obstacle after obstacle, without character development or sense of logic in many ways. And in the end, whatever they tried to explain about how earth is apparently continuing to wander onto a new solar system, it left me confused. Wasn't particularly enamored by the cast either.

C-

B-
Why? Just because in my 39 years old existence and few books read + no TV news, newspapers since I was 14... it is the first time I saw the idea of taking the whole Earth to another solar system.... even when Stephen Hawking is with convulsions inside his grave for all the non-senses in the movie.... but... who knows... we never tried something like that before.... so it may be not that crazy... Anyway... just that... Chinese movies are getting closer to Hollywood (CGI-wise) but not closer enough... it takes time...

yeah... just that...