*Get "After Earth" on Amazon here*
*Get After Earth: A Perfect Beast by Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, and Peter David on Amazon here*
While not the unmitigated disaster it was made out to be upon its initial release, "After Earth" is an interesting, violent failure yet completely watchable.
Will Smith is Cypher Raige (yeah, I know), a legendary military general. Earth has become uninhabitable, and mankind has moved on to a new planet populated by giant human killing alien monsters. Raige has the ability to show no fear (the aliens feed off the pheromones released), and thanks to that unique ability, has risen in the ranks. His son, Kitai (Jaden Smith), wants to follow in his father's footsteps, but isn't getting advanced at military school. As Cypher prepares for one final uneventful trip before retiring, he takes Kitai along, as well as a captured and contained alien creature.
The uneventful quickly becomes eventful, as the spaceship crashes, leaving just the Raiges alive. Cypher's legs are broken, and he must send his son out to retrieve a distress signal which is buried in some wreckage a hundred kilometers away. Oh, and not only has that creature escaped, but the spaceship has crash landed on Earth, which now teems with genetically mutated animals that are also looking to kill some humans.
Will Smith's name is all over the credits- coming up with the story, co-producing, and starring. M. Night Shyamalan's direction is assured and confident, which camera movements that feel natural. He is not credited with any scripting, so those looking for a Shyamalan twist ending will be disappointed. Doing some further reading, Smith had hoped this would open up a multimedia franchise that would revisit this look at humanity a thousand years from now, but the audiences didn't show up, and the film was panned.
The biggest complaint I heard when this was released was about the performances. Teen Jaden Smith plays a teen very well, but I do agree that Will Smith is not good here. His idea of stoicism and being emotionally distant to his family (Sophie Okonedo is his wife), is to show absolutely no emotion and to deliver his lines in a monotone. Hollywood is filled with films about military men who do show emotion even though there first love is the military. As an Air Force Brat, I can tell you I never saw any personnel act like this. Maybe the silent assassin/military man of the future acts this way, know-it-all? Granted, but does that mean teen boys of the future will still act the same way as teen boys of today, as Jaden Smith's performance makes clear?
The computer generated special effects were also a distraction. The pacing was swift until the last half hour or so, when things began to derail, and while I am aware that the military salute is very important in the military, I would like to call a moratorium on the "you've earned MY respect" salute (complete with swelling orchestral fanfare) that permeates many military-themed films.
Yeah, not a great film, but definitely not a disaster, either. It would be interesting to see the longer cut of the film, or look at some of the material that was prepared to launch this "After Earth" franchise. It's a shame so much time and effort was wasted on such an endeavor.
MPAA Rated (PG13) for strong physical violence, gore, and adult situations.
