What surprised me the most was how sophisticated the environment and world-building was. Right from the start, this is a gorgeously realized film. The image of the Earth, attached with rockets, roaring out of the solar system is one of the best things I have seen lately. And though the film may rely heavily on CGI (even though it doesn’t look the best at times), it certainly conveys a lot of atmosphere and depth that many films in this category simply don’t. It has its heart in the right place, it takes cues from some of the great sci-fi and apocalypse film, and in the end it’s an absolutely entertaining and satisfying watch.
The film also contains the usual absurd sci-fi/apocalypse plot, this one involving gigantic rockets being attached to the Earth and using the pull of Jupiter to blast off to a new solar system because soon the Sun will end up engulfing the Earth and destroying all of mankind as we know it. And all of that being nicely summarized within the first 5 minutes of the film too!
My biggest issue with the film; however, is the dull characterizations. Apart from the main characters of the Son and the Dad, the rest are not really well developed and they kind of fall flat in the end. Though we encounter some quirky characters, they never really develop in any satisfying way either. There is even an angle with the Grandpa and an adopted child that is suddenly sprung upon us in a flashback sequence that didn’t really work at all for me. And because of this there is a bit in the middle of the film where it lags quite a bit. That being said, the relationship between the Dad and the Son is strong enough to really pull us through, especially due to an absolutely brilliant performance by Jing Wu, who plays the Dad character.
It also helps that there is always something apocalyptic going on. Whether it be the fabulous scenes in space with the Dad trying to override the bots of a space station or the transport of an important energy core back on Earth. This film is action packed, and though the lesser characters often get lost in these moments, I couldn’t really care as I was on the edge of my seat. All this culminating into a fantastic and absurd saving the world moment in the end. Though the finale is marred by some predictable moments and a couple of cliches, it is overall quite a marvelous watch that left me smiling.
More than anything though, I think it was the inspired production design that really sold this film for me. The image of humans walking on the Earth with astronaut outfits is haunting. The image of the Earth being sucked up into Jupiter’s eye was absolutely amazing to look at. Even the cinematography, with deep blues and reds, added a lot to the environment and was gorgeously realized. There was a lot of thought and detail that was put into the world-building here and it pays off a ton. It was easily the most satisfying aspect of this film for me, which is a good thing because it fills every part of it.
At the end of the day, the action sequences are well filmed, the story is good enough for what it is, and the visuals will blow your socks off; what more do you really expect ?
