Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan.
Written by: Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan, story by Will Smith.
Starring: Jaden Smith (Kitai Raige), Will Smith (Cypher Raige), Sophie Okonedo (Faia Raige), Zoë Kravitz (Senshi Raige).
After
Year is the first big movie of blockbuster season that is downright awful. I
may have been mildly disappointed in Iron Man 3 and a little more than mildly
disappointed in The Great Gatsby, but both films were at least entertaining to
a certain degree. Although After Earth is significantly shorter than any of the
other big movies of the last month, it feels a lot longer. The movie is deadly
slow, ponderous, boring and at times downright goofy. It is a failure for all involved.
The
movie stars Will Smith and his son Jaden as father and son (naturally). It is
set 1,000 years after humanity had to evacuate Earth because their actions made
it in uninhabitable for humans. Since then, they have found a new home, but
apparently have been engaged in the longest war ever against the Ursa’s – an alien
creature, that is pretty much another clone from the Alien franchise. These
aliens are different however – they cannot see or hear – and track down humans
by smelling their fear. That’s right – their fear.
Smith
is Cypher Raige – a decorated General of the Rangers – the human Army who is
tasked with protecting the rest of us and killing the Ursa’s. Jaden is Kitai
Raige, his teenage son, still reeling from his failure as a child as he hid
from the Ursa’s and watched one of them kill his big sister, Senshi. Cypher has
never forgiven him for that (although, he was a child, and did what his sister
told him to, and what the hell was he going to do?). Cypher, of course, is
about to retire. He has one last training mission to go to – and decides to
take Kitai along with him. Kitai has just failed to be promoted to Ranger, but
his mother Faia (Sophie Okonedo) convinces Cypher the trip will be a chance to
get to know his son.
If
you’ve seen the previews – then you’ve seen the rest. A rocket crash kills
everyone but Kitai and Cypher – although it leaves Cypher with two broken legs –
unable to move from the downed ship. It has also destroyed their homing beacon,
so no one will be able to find them. But there is another one – in the tail of
the ship that crashed 100 KM away. Kitai needs to go and retrieve it or they’re
both dead. Oh, and they crashed on earth, where now every animal can kill you
and whose temperature fluctuates wildly (you would think that would kill the
animals – but I guess not – perhaps Darwin could explain why if he was around).
The
film has been directed by M. Night Shyamalan, once one of the most promising
directors working, and now looking at his third horrible movie in a row (the
other two being The Happening and The Last Airbender – others would say fifth
in a row, but while I hated The Village, I did not hate Lady in the Water as
many did). Here, although he co-wrote the screenplay, it is based on a story by
Will Smith himself – who obviously hoped this would be a star making vehicle
for his son Jaden. Jaden has shown he can be a pretty good young actor in films
like The Pursuit of Happyness and The Karate Kid, but here he is thrown into
the deep end, and simply does not have the charisma or acting chops to carry
this film. I’m not going to be too hard on him though, since most child actors couldn’t
do what is expected of Jaden Smith here. For much of the movie, he is by
himself, in the middle of an extremely fake CGI world, dodging killer monkeys
and a giant bird, and has no one to play off of. Carrying a movie without a
screen partner is an incredibly difficult thing to do – most actors cannot do
it, and we cannot really expect Smith to do it here. True, for most of the
movie, he has his father in his ear telling him what to do – but it’s not the
same thing as having a true scene partner. For his part, Smith Sr. gives his
dullest performance I can imagine. I’ve never thought Smith was a terrific
actor, but he’s always been a terrific movie star – using his undeniable charm
and likability to full advantage (and it should be said, he did pretty much
carry a movie by himself – I Am Legend. Here, he plays his character like it
was written – an almost emotionless character, who doesn’t know, or even seem
to want to know, his son. His is emotionless is many ways – making his name
Cypher a far too on the nose description of his character – the same could be
said for Smith Jr.’s name Kitai which is Japanese for Faith.
There
are a few moments in After Earth where I sensed the talented Shyamalan behind
the camera – a few subtle moments and camera moves that brought to mind his
best work. But for the most part, this is another deadly dull movie for him. He
is clearly a “director for hire” here, and there’s nothing inherently wrong
with that, but he seems to have lost most of his eye behind the camera. He
seems disinterested. His screenplay is still full of the forced sentimentality
and “profound” moments that are in reality quite shallow which has marred much
of his work.
I
could forgive After Earth many of its flaws if it weren’t for the biggest one –
the film is deadly dull. It drags on from one scene to the next, and even in
the action moments, fails to get the pulse of the audience racing. The movie
just sits there on the screen. And I just sat there in the audience waiting for
it to be over.
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