“After Earth” stars Will Smith and real-life son Jaden, who also play father and son in this sci-fi action/adventure set 1000 years after humans had to abandon Earth after we, the humans, destroyed it, apparently do to wars and pollution (as an early montage shows). This incredibly unoriginal premise is not a great way to start. Our new planet is Nova, and this is where young Kitai is training to be a ranger, hoping to eventually be an even better one than dad, who is the commander of the group that keeps the planet safe. Cypher is well respected and is now returning home to his wife and son, whom he hasn’t seen in quite some time.
To get to know his son a little better Cypher decides to bring Kitai along on a routine mission, the last one before he retires. I can’t imagine anything will go wrong! Sure enough, the spaceship is forced to crash land on a quarantined planet, and, amazingly, Cypher and Katai are the only survivors. What are the odds of that?! It turns out they’re back on Earth (again, the odds!) and all the creatures have been bred to hunt and kill humans. Since Cypher is hurt badly, Kitai has to go journey several miles on foot and find the tail section of the ship where the all-important signaling device is stored that they can use to alert a rescue crew.
And so, for the remainder of the film, we have the boy batting wild creatures and the elements while dad is talking to him and watching him with all of this sophisticated equipment that somehow survived the crash. Too bad the signaling device in the front of the plane doesn’t work. But then we wouldn’t have had a movie.
There’s plenty of blame to go around for the problems with “After Earth”. Let’s start with the story, which Will Smith himself is credited for. This guy is very talented and a Hollywood giant, but coming-up with story ideas clearly isn’t one of his strengths (at least not this time). It’s obvious that Smith wanted to make an action movie with his son, pitched this story and got the film made. And when you’re as rich and powerful as Will Smith all of this is possible (he even made sure that Jaden got top billing – that’s a supportive father!) But, in the end, it all comes down to the finished product.
It was cute to see the two of them together in “The Pursuit of Happyness”. Here is feels more like a bad family movie project.
The other person who needs to get credit for this mess (and I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to bring him up) is director M. Night Shaymalan. Since become an over-night sensation with 1999’s “The Sixth Sense”, Shaymalan has been involved in nothing but disasters, including 2010’s Razzie winner for Worst Picture, “The Last Airbender”. Because of this, “After Earth” isn’t even being promoted as a Shaymalan film (he also helped write the script). But it’s impossible to hide him from the film. The weak story-telling, uninspired action scenes that lack any suspense or drama, shallow characters and flat dialogue have all become his trademark. And the special effects in “After Earth” are completely unimpressive. Thankfully this movie is not as painful to watch as “Airbender”, but pretty close.
“After Earth” is rated PG-13 for the sci-fi action/violence and some disturbing images. It’s appropriate for kids 12 and up. I try avoid using the word “boring” when describing a movie, especially a sci-fi action adventure. But, unfortunately, it fits perfectly here.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “After Earth” gets a D+.