|
After Earth is
the second pairing of father and son team, Will and Jaden Smith. In
their first
film together, The Pursuit Of Happyness,
Will Smith played the doting father and in After
Earth, he plays a father at the other end of the spectrum and the
other end
of the galaxy. Years into the future when Earth has been deemed too
dangerous
to be inhabited by humans, Nova Prime is the new home of our species.
Cypher
Raige (Will Smith) returns home from duty to his family and to the
memory of
his daughter Senshi (Zoe Isabelle Kravitz) being savagely killed. His
son Kitai
(Jaden Smith) bears the burden and guilt of his sister’s death and as a
result,
feels the rift between himself and his father. In order for he and his
father
to become closer, Kitai accompanies Cypher on his latest mission and
after an
asteroid storm, their ship crashes into Earth with the two being the
only
survivors. Cypher is badly injured in the crash and needs help as soon
as
possible. Kitai has to save his father by venturing out of the ship and
into
the dangerous wilderness of Earth.
The
way that After Earth begins sets the mood
for the rest of the film. It begins with the scene inside the ship of
the
moment that Kitai is comforted by his father, only for the force to
throw his
father away from him. It is just such a full on
opening
that just doesn’t feel quite right. And this is what After
Earth really is, just not quite right. This can be said for
the majority of M. Night Shyamalan’s films in the past few years. He
has been
unable to recreate his glory days of The
Sixth Sense and even now, one of the biggest stars in the world
can’t bring
him back into the winners circle.
There
is no suspense involved in this film and it is predictable from the
word go. It
is so obvious what is going to happen in After
Earth and there are no surprises in the slightest. The film isn’t
particularly interesting either. The concept isn’t new and it just
seems to be
that Will Smith wanted to star in a movie with his son once again and
the
post-apocalyptic film genre seems to be doing very well these days. It
must be
said that the special effects and the creation of the creatures on
Earth are
done quite well. It’s just a shame that the score (also greatly typical
of
Shyamalan’s past films) and overall atmosphere of the film do not
support these
visuals.
Will
Smith is easily outdone by Jaden in this film. This may have been done
on
purpose by Will to try and push his son into the spotlight, but Smith
Snr. is
generally unlikable in this film. He is a dull character from beginning
to end
and terribly mean and boring. Jaden does do well, there is no denying
he will
be a fine actor in years to come. His best moments are when he is right
next to
his father and the natural love flows through to him. After
Earth just seems like a waste of time and without purpose. It
is almost as though M. Night Shyamalan has confused subtlety with
boredom and
this is the result he has achieved.
|
