After Earth

After Earth

Starring Jaden Smith, Will Smith, Sophie Okonedo, Zoe Kravitz

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Synopsis:
Humanity has abandoned Earth and fled to a new planet called Nova Prime, and they're stalked by creatures called Ursas who cannot see but smell human's fear, which causes the human's death.  Cypher (Will Smith) has found a way to ignore fear and becomes one of the most acclaimed killers of the Ursas.  He becomes a General and travels with his son Kitai (Jaden Smith) and a fleet of soldiers on his final voyage before retirement.

The ship is hit by asteroids and crash lands on Earth, which is now a whole new world with creatures who are designed to kill humans, along with a Ursa that was on the ship, which is now free.  Only Cypher and Kitai survive, but Cypher is critically injured and Kitai needs to travel the rough terrain to get to a homing beacon.  Along the way he comes into contact with creatures and has to learn to be like his dead - be fearless - before the Ursa gets him.

Review:
I really had no intentions of seeing this in theaters, especially after hearing all the negative press, which I assumed was in part due to it being directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who went from being one of film's most influential directors ("The Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable") to a joke ("The Happening," "The Last Airbender"). 

When I got around to finally seeing it, I had to agree.  It was a mess.  The actors had this odd accent that didn't translate well and made some of the more powerful performances less of an impact because it seemed the actors were trying harder to maintain the accent than getting their point across.

The story was simple enough, about an estranged father and son coming together, and told in a grand scale.  Unfortunately, Shyamalan's technique of what I call "wooden acting" really killed any emotion.  By "wooden acting" I refer to how his characters tend to express their voices without emotion, coming across as "wooden."  There's no influx of voice to show emotion, it's a straight line.  Examples of this is Mel Gibson in "Signs" and Bryce Dallas Howard in "The Village" for example.  Will Smith does this here, and it takes away from the meaning.  Jaden - Will's real life son - has more emotion but you can tell he's trying to maintain his accent more.  It results in a less than powerful punch.

There wasn't much action surprisingly in the film, especially when Kitai is roaming Earth and when he comes across the creatures.  There's no real tension, even when they try to create it.  You know he's going to reach the beacon and you know he's eventually going to go against the Ursa, and everything between appears hollow. 

Summary:
It's not that "After Earth" is as bad as people say it was.  It's worse.  It was just plain boring.

My Rating: C-