After Earth

I do not know what I want to say, but I want to say something so people won't waste money on this piece of whatever one wants to call it.

I am a big SciFi fan, yet something like that I never experienced. Was it the effects that ruined it, was it the lame story, the extra-lame acting of the second Smith in the movie, the directing of someone who got after Signs too much credit and couldn't deliver since (with the exception of the low budget Devil). I really cant say. Its just very disappointing and I wished I would not have seen it, not spend the time nor the money. But I wanted to know it for myself if the critics are right, since they are so many times wrong (in my opinion).

Well, they are right, and yet they even gave the movie way too much credit. Probably because of Will Smith.

The year is not over, but I do not think that After earth will be topped in the category for "the worst movie of 2013"!

After Earth should be retitled After Birth, because that is exactly how sloppy and dirty this pathetic excuse for a film is. Gross analogy, I know, but trust me, a delivery room after a woman has given birth is a better produced show then this. I honestly don't even know where to start. The film decided to market itself as a Will Smith film, which was the only way to get people to go because of how silly its plot is. Even the Will Smith fans were let down because all he does is sit in a chair the whole time and speak to his son in an over-serious and unintentionally hilarious monotonous voice. He easily gives his worst performance to date, but it is not quite the worst acting in the film. Jaden Smith gives a Razzie worthy performance as an underdeveloped character with a useless upsetting past and an ear-cringing accent. He whines and makes the most stupid mistakes a film character has ever made in the history, provided by the horrendous Shamylan-Esq screenplay where you can't tell if its supposed to be funny or not. "He let me borrow the book Moby Dick, he even let me hold it.""Hold what?" "The book...dad" Word for word. This comes off as a terrible joke some sixth grader tries to make, and there are many nonsense lines like this crammed into the ridiculous plot with gaping and obvious plot holes. Why is he making a fire when he's right above a geothermic vent? Why in the heck did the bird who just tried to eat him save his life? Why is that oxygen mask working when its not even attached to anything? Why did Jaden need to get higher on the volcano to send out the transmission when he was just getting closer to the "radioactive cloud"(dafuq)? A ton of these mistakes are so obviously scattered throughout the terrible script. It really just makes it funny. If you enjoy being entertained by stupid movies, I definitely recommend you check this out because it is so bad its funny.

GRADE: D- (The only reason I'm not giving this piece of crap an F is because it's still not as bad as Last Airbender, so you need to give Shamylan some credit)

I must have missed the 'everyone say crap about this film' meeting, After Earth is quite simply NOT as bad as the majority of reviewers are implying?! I'm not biased, I don't worship any of the actors but I do know my films and can appreciate them even when they're not what I anticipated!

I sat and read about 15 reviews before deciding I wanted to go and see this film anyway, and happy I did. I'm a sci-fi fan so when films include the sounds of a spaceships engines... in umm... space, well that annoys me. But I could forgive After Earth for this and it's other negatives because it's not a hardcore sci-fi, even if it somewhat tried to be in places.

Will Smith is very monotone throughout, correct. Jaden Smith is probably a few years away from this role working fully for him, correct. There are some question marks over the uncomplicated and slightly predictable plot and cheap looking set design in places, correct. But it was good escapism fun for an hour and a half and worth seeing on the big screen.

I won't deny, there could have been improvements and big alterations in many places to the point that this could have been an 8/10 from me, but it works on the level it chose to be at. Considering Will Smith had near full control of this project - writing the script, coaching his son's performance, personally hiring M Night Shyamalan (but only for basic directing) - this film is good for what it is.

Had it come before Star Trek, Oblivion and Cloud Atlas this year and if M Night Shyamalan didn't have a bad rep then I think this film would be at the 6.5/10 rating that I think it deserves.

This film is about a space craft that crash-landed on a dangerous planet called Earth, and the only two survivors have to struggle to stay alive.

The first few minutes of "After Earth" already look not so promising, and it only goes downhill from there. Acting is consistently bad by Jaden Smith, he is so annoying as a teenager who constantly freaks out. Will Smith is supposed to be a fearless commander, but his supposed bravery makes him so wooden as if he was a wax statue.

The plot is simply ridiculous. There are so many plot holes that are so obvious, that they simply should not happen. For example, if Will Smith is such a great commander, how could he not command people to wear seat belts when they were about to hit a meteor shower. And the masks are not even connected to anything!? The whole story, from the macro level to the micro level is very poorly written and makes no sense. The supposed emotional climax is so weak, that I wonder if that scene is really supposed to make me feel proud of what is shown on the screen.

"After Earth" is a terrible mess. This time, believe the critics.

After Earth is a Sci Fi survival story of a boy named, "Kitai Raige" (Jaden Smith) who crash landed on a planet along with his father "Cypher Raige" (Will Smith), and have to survive various kinds of dangers that Earth greets the crash landers with.

I have to admit that the trailer when I saw it months ago, did get me excited. But fortunately I saw today that it was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and all my hopes were out. It was this low expectation that made the movie worth a watch.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Mr. Night, but he have a knack of making movies too boring sometimes. But fortunately his last movie "The Last Airbender" wasn't his last movie as a director. So when I say After Earth wasn't a total disappointment, I mean it.

Story wise movie doesn't give much to offer. Except the basic premise of survival and some flashbacks there isn't much to say. Visual effects were also just acceptable. Certainly not that what is expected of this age. The pace of movie was rather acceptable, and father son combo was the selling point.

But what I think lacked much in After Earth, was the fact that Earth didn't seem much dangerous to me. Mr. Night failed to get more dangers for the actor to fight against. And it felt like movie was cut short due to budget constraints at a later stage of production. This is why the time is took to built the pace seemed long, but the actual time devoted to Earth felt short and rushed.

Talking about performance of Jaden, real son of Will Smith, I have to say he needs much to learn. He is shown to be a boy who gets scared easily. But is later shown to gather courage to do what he sought out to. Its not like this is his fist cameo with Will Smith. He first worked with his father in "The Pursuit of Happiness". But unlike that film After Earth wasn't a Will Smith movie. After Earth can be said as Jaden's role as a first billed star cast.

One thing I liked about this movie was the Soundtrack. It felt immersive enough. After all the music was created by James Newton, the man behind soundtrack of Batman Begins, along with Hans Zimmer.

Overall, movie didn't feel something to drool over. But is worth a watch. Maybe when it comes out on DVD, or TV. But I liked it. It's not a lot of times when you get to see a father and son movie that are father and son in real life.

Review URL: vineetkumar.me/2013/06/after-earth/