Promotional material for 1917 Photo: Maoyan

The Chinese mainland premiere of war film 1917 was held in Beijing on Tuesday. Critics who attended the premiere gave the film high compliments, saying that the film was worth the half-a-year wait.

The movie was released outside China at the end of 2019 and in early 2020, but when all Chinese mainland cinemas were closed down due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the film's release in the market was delayed. 

Now that Chinese mainland cinemas have reopened and the film industry has begun marching toward recovery, this long anticipated film that won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Mixing will finally meet with mainland audiences on Friday.

On China's popular media review platform Douban, the film has already earned an 8.5/10 from 233,000 reviews.

Shi Wenxue, a film critic based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the film belongs on the big screen as it is an immersive visual experience with stunning sound can only be felt in the cinema.

Shi emphasized that the director's choice to make the film so it appears as if it was one continuous shot is one of the main reasons for its success. 

"This is a successful experiment of a full length shot. The team built models before shooting, rehearsed many times during shooting and set up editing points through various techniques and special effects in the post-production stage to complete the full-length shot, demonstrating Hollywood's high level of filmmaking."  

Co-written, directed and produced by Sam Mendes, 1917 follows two young British soldiers who are ordered to deliver a message calling off a doomed offensive attack. This message is especially important to one of the soldiers because his brother will be part of the attack.

Many Chinese netizens said after reading reviews that they are looking forward to watching the movie in cinemas and experiencing the film for themselves.