Directed by:
M. Night ShyamalanCinematography:
Peter SuschitzkyComposer:
James Newton HowardCast:
Will Smith, Jaden Smith, David Denman, Zoë Kravitz, Sophie Okonedo, Lincoln Lewis, Kristofer Hivju, Darrell Foster, Chris Geere, Lonzo Liggins, Sacha Dhawan (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
General Cypher Raige (Will Smith) is an important figure in the new civilisation humans have built on Nova Prime following the mass departure from Earth centuries before. After a lengthy tour of duty, Cypher is looking forward to spending some time with his 13-year-old son Kitai (Jaden Smith). However, when Cypher and Kitai's spacecraft is damaged in an asteroid storm, forcing them to crash land on the abandoned Earth, the necessity of father-son bonding is accelerated. With Cypher critically injured from the crash, Kitai must find a way to signal for help on a planet reclaimed by nature, ruled by hyper-evolved animals and containing the alien creature who has escaped from the wreckage of their craft. (Sony Pictures Releasing)
(more)Videos (8)
Reviews (9)
This film has a promising start. With its interesting sci-fi vision, beautiful visuals and the theme of bringing a father together with his son, who is also undergoing a process of self-realisation process, After Earth has great blockbuster potential. Despite the pleasant charm of adventurousness, however, the result is a weak storyline that fails completely in terms of both emotion and message. It is like when you know what you are supposed to be experiencing as a viewer, but it just passes you by due to its naivety and half-baked nature. To a large extent, that is actually Jaden Smith’s fault, or perhaps we should blame Shyamalan’s directing.
()
Two stars, because unlike The Happening, sometimes something actually happens here. It doesn't make sense, but neither does the story itself. It was as if Will was inventing it half asleep over his son's bed. But what kind of bastard tells a child a similar sectarian and emotionless story of subordination? A Scientologist? Shyamalan films some of the scenes under sedation - otherwise, he wouldn't miss how the dad and son rubberized him. The icing on the cake is a kind of eco message grafted on Moby Dick for unknown reasons. Cruel for a fairy tale, naive for a drama, lame for an action film. I hope the idiot who once called Shyamalan the new Spielberg saw this film. He should kneel and tell us how he feels. And the Indian master should retire to sniff turmeric. Which, of course, will finally happen. Judging by the effects, this is a huge $130 million fraud.
()
Jaden Smith is a supremely unlikeable brat who happens to have a charismatic dad who’s burying him a successful career by pushing him hard into production and acting. And the film itself? An embezzlement of a 130 million budget, though better than Shayamalan's last three flicks, but that’s nothing to be proud of.
()
Shyamalan once again showed that he is not that bad of a director, but also that he really should not write screenplays. The story is primitive, full of dementia and clichés. Smith Jr. in the lead role is also no money-maker. This interesting topic (from Will Smith's brain) could certainly have been more than an expensive-looking and story-free sci-fi about a father-son relationship.
()
An inoffensive drama (taking place in the future) about the relationship of a fearless general (strangely detached Will) and his lily-livered cadet son (lily-livered Jaden) and their attempt to get off the planet that they crash landed on. Shy stumbles into one disaster after another, but here he is on top of the direction and he even comes up with some bright ideas. A straightforward and simple story about dispelling fear is very flimsy and the transformation at the end was very forced. So only a fair amount of blood and killer animals keep it above water. Just right, really. And how the Earth started to flourish as soon as those parasites had rocketed off elsewhere...
()
Ads