Thursday, March 28, 2024

Movie Review: After Earth is an above-average sci-fi film


Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Writers: Garry Whitta, M. Night Shyamalan, Will Smith (story)
Stars: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Zoe Kravitz, Sophie Okonedo

Synopsis: 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.

[/info]

DIRECTION

M. Night Shyamalan has gotten so much hate since he was hailed as a promising up-and-comer after The Sixth SenseUnbreakable and Signs. And with good reason as the quality of his films dropped dramatically after his initial success. After Earth probably won’t change your opinion of him but it is a step in the right direction. And while there are no twists and turns this time around, After Earth is certainly an M. Night film as it shines and suffers in the same areas as most of his previous films. M. Night has always had an eye for shots and that’s no different here. The visuals are amazing with beautiful vistas of mountains and woods and the camerawork is equally as impressive. Whether it’s a wide, sweeping shot or a tight corridor shot, the camera is always right where it needs to be. The only aspect keeping the overall look of After Earth from being superb is the hit-or-miss special effects; it’s either really good or very Syfy Channel-ish. And while M. Night’s films have always looked good, they also always have the tendency to have average acting and a story that doesn’t quite reach it’s full potential. Both of those problems are prevalent here and keep After Earth from being more than just an above-average sci-fi film.

Grade: B

[divider]

SCRIPT
When it comes to M. Night films and their scripts, a twist is usually expected. Not this time. There are no surprises in After Earth, which is about as straightforward as you can get. The basic premise is a ship crashes on Earth, which has now become a dangerous, inhabitable planet, and the father-son combo of Cypher and Kitai Raige are the only survivors.  The father is hurt and can’t move, so it’s the job of the son to traverse the planet and find a distress beacon to call for help and keep them both alive. That’s it; nothing more, nothing less. It’s a solid premise; however, it doesn’t quite reach its full potential. Cypher and Kitai have a strained relationship as Kitai hasn’t seen his father in a long time. For a film that is primarily about the father-son relationship, they don’t quite explore it deep enough for it to have any sort of emotional impact – which is needed for a film that doesn’t have much action.

Grade: B-

[divider]

PERFORMANCES
After Earth  is a two-man show with the father-son (in real life and in the film) combo of Will and Jaden Smith. And really this is mostly Jaden Smith’s show. Jaden Smith, whose biggest role before this was as The Karate Kid, does an adequate job but isn’t quite at that stage of his acting career to really carry a film – unlike his father who has proven he can with I Am Legend. Speaking of his father, Will Smith doesn’t give the greatest performance here; he’s very stiff and wooden with his expressions and line delivery. But I think that may have more to do with his character – a tough, been-through-a-lot general type – than his acting. The other main actors – Sophie Okonedo, who plays Will Smith’s wife, Zoe Kravitz, who plays his daughter – do solid work, but are more in the background and Kravitz only appears in flashback sequences.

Grade: B-

[divider]

SCORE
After Earth is an M. Night film so that makes it pretty easy to guess who composed the score: James Newton Howard. And like he did with some of M. Night’s previous films – particularly The Sixth Sense and Signs – is produce music that fits the setting and the tone of the film really well. The score for After Earth is very somber and almost has an other-worldly feel to it. And using an assortment of instruments (with a special nod to the flutes and piano) throughout adds a lot of variety and makes the score standout even more.

Grade: B+

[divider]

Overall Grade: B-

Nate Parsons
Nate Parsons
Nate pretends to be a movie connoisseur but in reality he really knows nothing about movies other than the fact that he loves them. His favorites include The Shawshank Redemption, Braveheart and Schindler's List. Follow him on Twitter @nater_parsons

Similar Articles

Comments

  1. Just saw this movie last night. Most reviews I have heard from this movie have been really awful (admittely I hadn’t seen this review yet). So I went into it with a kind of predetermined notion that it was going to be really bad. But when I came out, I was left with the impression- wasn’t the greatest movie I’ve ever seen, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as many of the reviews I’ve seen. So I was pleased to see that you guys didn’t reem the movie.

    I agree with pretty much this whole review. The acting was choppy was wooden and they were speaking with unneccessarily weird accents and cadences, but oddly enough, I think that was what M Night was going for- considering it was supposed to be 1000+ years into the future…of course language and speech patterns will change. But I still could have done with out it, mostly cause I know the acting chops of Will Smith, and I suspect Jaden has it in him too- I would have loved to see them be allowed to explore the human sides of their emotions a bit more.

    Personally I loved the father/son dynamic, and the end sequence even drew a tear to my eye, but I’m a relatively new dad, so these kind of movies mean something different to me these days.

    • Good stuff, Brent! I was actually pretty excited about this one! It had a lot of potential and some good ideas but it just didn’t quite get there.
      We saw this minutes after getting out of Now You See Me, which is one of the better movies I’ve seen this year.

Comments are closed.

SPONSOR

spot_img

SUBSCRIBE

spot_img

FOLLOW US

1,902FansLike
1,070FollowersFollow
19,997FollowersFollow
4,640SubscribersSubscribe
Advertisment

MOST POPULAR