Review by: Marcus Flewellen
The best thing I can say after After Earth, the latest film from the once-promising director M. Night Shyamalan, is that it’s not as bad as Shyamalan’s previous film, The Last Airbender.
The film stars Jaden Smith as Kitai Raige, a teenager living in a bleak post-apocalyptic future: the Earth has become uninhabitable and humans have been forced to relocate to a planet called Nova Prime, which exists outside of our solar system. Kitai is the son of Cypher Raige, the stern and fearless General of an intergalactic peacekeeping organization called the Ranger Corps. Cypher is played by Jaden’s father Will Smith, who manages to deliver an effective performance even though most of his trademark effortless charm has been replaced with stern glances and humorless dialogue.
Kitai, who’s been traumatized by a childhood tragedy, is trying desperately to follow his father’s footsteps and become a member of the Ranger Corps, even though his father has been so busy saving the universe that Kitai barely even knows him. (You might even say that Cypher is…a cipher. Get it?) At the behest of his wife Faia (played by the always-stellar Sophie Okonedo), Cypher takes his son on a routine patrol mission that – of course – goes horribly wrong, and ends with the father-son duo stranded on Earth, which has now become a tropical paradise inhabited by genetically evolved creatures that are specialized to kill humans. Since the crash has left Cypher with two broken legs, it’s up to young Kitai to retrieve an emergency beacon that’s located 1000 kilometers away.
It’s important to know that After Earth isn’t a Will Smith movie. It’s a Jaden Smith movie. Though the elder Smith recently received some criticism for stating in an interview that he didn’t play the title character in Quentin Tarantino’s latest film Django Unchained because he didn’t think that it was the lead role, here he plays a supporting role to his son Jaden, who doesn’t (yet) have his father’s ability to carry an entire film by himself. I have nothing against Jaden Smith; he was great in his two previous films, The Pursuit of Happyness (which he co-starred in with his father) and the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid.
Here, he shows some signs of the effortless charisma and comedic timic that he displayed in his previous two films. However he fails miserably in his dramatic scenes; he’s constantly over-emoting, which makes these scenes incredibly cringe-inducing and annoying. It’s not his fault, though: Shyamalan, who also co-wrote the script, and the elder Smith, who also produced the film and came up with the original idea, have constructed a star vehicle for him that he’s not quite ready for.
As for the film itself, I can’t really see anyone enjoying After Earth. If you’re looking for a comedy, this film, for the most part, takes itself way too seriously. If you’re looking for a satisfying sci-fi epic, you’ll be disappointed by the mediocre special effects and heavy-handed messages. If you’re a Will Smith fan — this is his second film since 2008 – then you’ll be disappointed because, as I mentioned earlier, this isn’t a Will Smith film. And if you’re just looking for a fun time at the movies, you’ll likely be bored by this film, not entertained.
Oh well. At least it’s not as bad as The Last Airbender.
Check out the trailer below:
