After Earth is a drab, boring movie. It’s poorly acted, obviously plotted and features special effects that pale in comparison to recent sci-fi offerings like Oblivion and Star Trek Into Darkness. As directed by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Village), there is no signature visual style to distinguish it from the work of any number of Hollywood hacks churning out crap for the VOD market. (No twist ending, either, but Shyamalan ditched that move years ago.) It’s still only May, but After Earth may prove to be the least-distinguished “blockbuster” of the season.
Will Smith stars as Cypher Raige, a ridiculously named general in humanity’s post-earth military. After a heavy-handed opening sets the scene (humans were forced to flee the planet thanks to global warming — how original!), we meet General Raige’s son Kitai (Jaden Smith), who believes he should be promoted to Ranger (whatever that means; the movie never details what military ranks mean 1000 years in the future) but is nonetheless treated like the kid he is and told to keep training. At the urging of his wife (Sophie Okonedo), Raige decides to take Kitai on a mission somewhere (the incredibly boring details escape me) for a little father-son bonding.
The pair gets more then they bargained for , however, when their ship hits an unexpected meteor shower and is forced to land on earth. The only survivors of the crash are Kitai, his father and a beastie called an Ursa that is trained to kill humans. The general is badly injured in the crash, and Kitai is tasked with making a multi-day journey to the tail section of their craft to recover an emergency beacon that can be used to call for help. Want to bet if he makes it?
Absolutely nothing of interest occurs in After Earth.. There are the requisite chase scenes, animal encounters and battles with CGI monsters, but all of it seems stale. The movie pins its intellectual aspirations to a plot device involving the Ursa’s ability to track humans by smelling their fear. “Fear is an illusion, but danger is very real,” Raige tells his son, setting up a climactic showdown where the boy overcomes his fear and becomes “invisible” to the Ursa. Ugh, who thought of this shit?
I’ll tell you who thought of this shit: Will Smith. The actor gets a story credit, while Shyamalan co-wrote the screenplay. It’s a shame there are no more professional writers left in Hollywood, leaving the story creation ideas to egotistical actors who want to get their kid’s career off the ground. Although, after watching Will Smith’s insipid performance in After Earth, he’s probably wise to try and further diversify his resume.
As for Jaden Smith, I really don’t want to come down hard on him despite the fact that he is awful in this movie. He is just a kid, after all, one who mumbles throughout and seems to have only two go-to facial expressions — the “blank stare” and the “I’m about to pee my pants” look. But it’s not his fault that the director is a used-up hack and no one can tell his father the truth: his son is in way over his head, and the quality of the work they did was well below average.
Will Smith has always been an extremely likable performer, both as a musician and an actor. After Earth seems determined to strip him of every ounce of charisma, and in this the movie succeeds. Go find a supporting role in a non-summer blockbuster Will; something where we can have a few laughs and remember why audiences have loved you for two decades now. And for the love of god, stop casting your fucking children.
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 5, 2013.