Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald

The underlying story and science are a bit dodgy (the sun is blowing up so the decision is made to move the Earth to Alpha Centauri) but this is a fun film to watch on a big screen. Production design, sets, and costumes are superb with many stunning images displayed throughout.

Special effects are mostly excellent with an exception being the quality of some matte paintings that look like, well, matte paintings. Also, the excessive use of shaky-cam work in the latter part of the film is distracting and takes away from the realism the film sets out to display early on.

Finally, the subtitles are a bit on the skimpy side (the primary language is Mandarin). I watch a lot of non-English language films with subtitles and these leave a lot to be desired. Fortunately, the story is so visual that lapses like the subtitles and occasional forced sentimentality are soon forgotten.

If you like big ideas and seeing unusual physical and astronomical phenomena illustrated in spectacular and fantastic detail, this film is for you. Just don’t think too hard about some of the plot details.

Review copyright (c) 2019 by Dennis D. McDonald

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