After Earth

Directing a movie must be hard, that is why M Night’s latest product failed horribly. It’s massive oh yes, but it’s rather too dumb or dare I say easy to grasp the idea that yes, the plot is set thousands of years from present day earth, earth is no longer habituated, human beings moved on to another galaxy and from that very  galaxy they voyage into deep space in a heavily CGI’ed Star Wars type space craft. They “warped” ahead of asteroids thereby damaging the space craft and the Smiths are the only survivors that crash landed and they have to find their way back to whatever galaxy they are from. However the many rules and laws tangled with their journey is rather too much to grasp and rather boring too. It’s also safe to say that the step by step revelation of M Night’s style of storytelling leaves the audience with faux leather. Backdrops are super eye popping, the animals are large and dangerous and there’s this blind alien who can kill humans by sensing their fear, it’s called Ursa and it killed Jayden’s elder sister, she protected him from being torn to pieces. The movie does not take you to the future world, it does briefly at the beginning when it explained what all the hassle of the alien is about, on the contrary, after the heavily CGI’ed   beacon ship crash landed, the movie takes you to a journey of a father and son bonding while trying to find a device that would send a stress signal that would get them rescued. Resources are scarce, they got into fits of fights and then it drags on. Likewise, the graphics and the settings are very depicting and exhibiting however it’s the plot that has to be the pimple of the face for the reason why the movie misses the bull’s eye.

Mind you, it’s not as bad as a Bollywood territory, the production is huge, and it has a budget of $130 however the sets and installments feels or looks rather cheapish like faux plastic brushed to look like metal casing. The space ship interior is rather simple, a change from the vagina looking designs or science fiction movie space ships.  The Smiths both have this post-earth accent that both can’t keep up, Will’s leg, both legs broke due to the crash and he is left all through out of the movie barking orders at his son and whatever “take a knee” means. There’s a huge bird that somehow protects Jayden and even died for him, that summed up the category for loveable flicks and as much as the score would allow you to believe, it’s not much happening, nor is the dialogue, the father son struggle seem to stem back from childhood and Jayden certainly doesn’t act as good, he’s just not a very good actor. I can see that Will Smith is giving his son a chance for this summer blockbuster. It has all the flair and gimmick to make it a good watch but After Earth totally failed. There is no one to really blame, the director spanned backdrops and exotic Amazon territory forests, lava and snowcapped spaces. The score is minimal which indeed is fractured in the first place. However, it is the actors and the very complex reminiscing dialogues that make the movie more of an ordeal, the fighting scenes are minimal, too minimal and when they happen, its loud and room shattering.

If you’ve seen the movie trailer before thinking it would be awesome, then you’re in for a disappointment. It’s not bad at all but the goods are not well rounded enough for your entertainment to be in safe harbor. You might want to save your cash and go watch another movie instead.


Picture courtesy of Wikipedia. Taken from the below link: 
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5b/After_Earth_Poster.jpg