Hey, remember that one
great film that M. Night Shyamalan made? Nope, me neither. However, when I saw
the trailer for After Earth, I thought that maybe this sci-fi action thriller may finally
put a good film to his name.
Unfortunately, I was
wrong.
Will and Jaden Smith
star as a father and son, stranded on a post-apocalyptic Earth that has been
destroyed by war, pollution and violence. Nearing extinction, humans have fled
to a new, habitable planet, and the animals have adapted to become dangerous predators.
When his ship crash lands on Earth, Young Katai (Jaden Smith) must traverse
this deadly territory in order to retrieve a rescue beacon to call for help for
him and his father (Will Smith).
This is a great
premise, and if done well, could make for a great movie. Unfortunately, it
wasn’t done well. Shyamalan had an opportunity here to let his imagination run
wild and make some seriously cool beasties, but all we see is a baboon, some
tigers and a bird. None of them seem any different though, just slightly
bigger! This lead to some rather underwhelming confrontations.
Which brings me to my
next point! For an action film, there really isn’t much action. There are three
encounters with the adapted animals of Earth, yet Katai only engages them once.
This was disappointing, as the trailer suggested much higher levels of action.
Most of the film is Jaden Smith waving his weapon around and running away from
things.
I’m not saying there
isn’t any action at all. The battle with the tigers is certainly tense and
entertaining, and a showdown with the monstrous “Ursa” at the climax gives a taste of how the
action could have been, but left me wishing that more of the film had been like
that.
It’s not all bad
though. As well as the action scenes (which were entertaining, despite the lack
of them), the film also looks great. The CGI on the creatures isn't the best
I've ever seen, but it isn't terrible. The main visual pull is in the way the
new world looks. A shot near the beginning of the film shows a vast and
beautiful landscape, populated by a number of things flying around or grazing.
No matter what was happening, the world always seemed alive, and for me, this
is one of the highlights of the film.
Will Smith also does
pretty well with his character. He played the Kristen Stewart card towards
the beginning of the film and showed no emotion whatsoever, which fit with
his hard-as-nails, military captain style role. However, as the film
progresses, his injuries take their toll, and the danger around his son increases,
his emotions begin to come to the surface. These emotions are portrayed pretty
well, and shows just how far he has come since being the Fresh Prince.
Unfortunately, Jaden
isn’t as convincing. I only truly believed his performance once, when he’s
shouting about how his father was never there for him, which in hindsight is
somewhat worrying. Other than that though, there was nothing particularly
spectacular about him, and in a main character, this isn’t great. I struggled
to make any emotional connection with his character, meaning that I really
didn’t care what happened to him.
After Earth isn’t a terrible film,
it just doesn’t stand out as a great one. The visuals are good, and the
relationship between Will and Jaden Smith adds a sense of realism to their
characters on screen, but there are just too many flaws for me to recommend it.
4/10
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