After Earth

Welcome to another episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is After Earth.

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

Written by Gary Whitta & M. Night Shyamalan.

Screen Story by Will Smith.

Review #214

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and some disturbing images.

Run Time: 100 min

Trailer: Courtesy of Apple's Trailer Page

Cast

Jaden Smith...Kitai Raige

Will Smith...Cypher Raige

Sophie Okonedo...Faia Raige

Zoë Kravitz...Senshi Raige (as Zoe Isabella Kravitz)

Glenn Morshower...Commander Velan

Kristofer Hivju...Security Chief

Sacha Dhawan...Hesper Pilot

Chris Geere...Hesper Navigator

Diego Klattenhoff...Veteran Ranger

David Denman...Private McQuarrie

I wish I could explain myself better but when it comes to films made by people that I don't like, I continue to give them the benefit of the doubt. I constantly hold out hope that maybe this one time they'll get it right or return to the form that once made them a success.

M. Night Shyamalan is undoubtedly one of these filmmakers.

He is a tragic example of lightning in a bottle. We all know the success he had with The Sixth Sense and to a lesser extent Unbreakable (A film I prefer over The Sixth Sense any day and twice on Sunday). Then something unexpected and very disappointing happened. He started making HORRIBLE films that were panned by both the public and the professionals. Shyamalan's rise and fall from Hollywood grace is a story of legend.

There are so many accounts that chronicle why and how his film career has deteriorated over time. Many believe that studio interference and conflicting vision led to not only his poor track record but his dismissal from Disney/Touchstone Pictures. Then there's the version that I think is true. He started to feel himself a bit too much and thought he was beyond studio control. There were several stories that detail Night's refusal to change his scripts or give writing control to someone else and just have him direct.

In a nutshell it was pure ego.

There are only two people who know the truth. That's Night and God and neither one is going to tell us so the speculation rages on. The one thing that doesn't need clarification is Night's latest batch of films. They've been poorly written, acted and directed. Night lost his mojo and needs to get it back quick or he will find himself becoming a punchline instead of a cinema prodigy.

So with his latest entry I instantly rejected the thought of seeing this film. Then I changed my mind thanks to two factors. The first being he didn't write this film on his own. The second was the Will Smith factor. I was confident that if Night thought he was going to walk in and take control he had another thing coming. Will Smith is one of the more powerful entities in Tinseltown. Like it or not, the man's got juice and the bankroll to back it up.

So did these factors change my mind about Shyamalan?

HELL NO! But this time he's not the only one responsible. This flat film was a true team effort.

Plot

A crash landing leaves Kitai Raige and his father Cypher stranded on Earth, 1,000 years after events forced humanity's escape. With Cypher injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help.

After Earth has a pretty good premise and presentation.The scope and world that's created for this film was not bad at all. The biggest problem with this film is the script. Mainly in one critical area.

The relationship between Cypher and Kitai.

The story revolves around the disconnected relationship between the heroic warrior father and the wannabe rebellious son. After Earth does a decent job when it comes to Kitai's disappointment that he's not like his father and Cypher's equal disappointment in Kitai not being like him. What fails here is the reason for Cypher's detachment from Kitai. It's only told in bits and pieces through flashbacks. It wasn't fleshed out enough. Normally I abhor needless exposition but in this case it was a necessity. The script makes it clear that Cypher doesn't believe in his son by his actions and attitude towards him.

What was sorely lacking was showing us why.

It was essential to the flow and feel of this this film that we identified with the struggles of both of these characters. Especially since we were going to spend 85% of the film with them. It wasn't here and that was a missed opportunity of epic proportions. This falls on Whitta, Shyamalan and Will Smith. He was given a story credit for this film. If this film came from his head then he should have known better to include more strife and conflict between him and his son or mandate that to the writers.

Instead we got a coming of age tale that underperformed in every way.

The failure of After Earth doesn't just lie with the underdeveloped script. It also fails with the performance of the two leads. Both Will and Jaden Smith were terrible. The premise and motivation for Cypher's character was to be emotionless and methodical but that doesn't mean to act like a robot. Jaden wasn't much better. The film tried to establish Kitai's defiance for the rules while training to be a ranger. How do we see this? With a scene where he's being told he's not going to be a ranger because of his reckless behavior. How about seeing an example of that? Would it be so hard to show this kid act like the brat he was supposed to be portrayed as?

Nah. That would make too much sense.

After some very slow moving scenes we get to the very predictable finale that would have been more rewarding had we been more invested in these two characters. Since I didn't care about these people. I cared less about what happened to them at the end. This is all Shyamalan's doing. He co wrote this film. He needed to know that if you were going to tell a story that contained plot elements that have been done before and much better I might add. He had to find a way to make this his own. This is what he accomplished with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. He made two genre films and found a way to make them his own with some creativity and originality.

That doesn't happen here and hasn't happened with his films since.

On the 5 star scale. After Earth gets 1 star with a "Netflix It!" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"