After Earth (2013)
Average Rating: 3.8/10
Reviews Counted: 177
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 157
After Earth is dull, ploddingly paced exercise in sentimental sci-fi -- and the latest setback for director M. Night Shyamalan's once-promising career.
Average Rating: 3.7/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 35
After Earth is dull, ploddingly paced exercise in sentimental sci-fi -- and the latest setback for director M. Night Shyamalan's once-promising career.
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Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 96,001
Movie Info
A crash landing leaves teenager Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) and his legendary father Cypher (Will Smith) stranded on Earth, 1,000 years after cataclysmic events forced humanity's escape. With Cypher critically injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help, facing uncharted terrain, evolved animal species that now rule the planet, and an unstoppable alien creature that escaped during the crash. Father and son must learn to work together and trust one another if they want any
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Cast
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Will Smith
General Cypher Raige -
Jaden Smith
Kitai, Kitai Raige -
Zöe Kravitz
Senshi Raige -
Sophie Okonedo
Faia Raige -
Lincoln Lewis
Running Cadet -
Sacha Dhawan
Hesper Pilot -
Chris Geere
Hesper Navigator -
Kristofer Hivju
Security Chief -
David Denman
Private McQuarrie -
Glenn Morshower
Commander Velan -
Jaden Martin
Nine-Year-Old Kitai -
Sincere L. Bobb
Three-Year Old Kitai... -
Monika Jolly
Female Ranger -
Diego Klattenhoff
Veteran Ranger
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After Earth Trailer & Photos
All Critics (177) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (157)
Most disappointing is the film's lack of ambition, as what could have been a sparky mainstream space opera becomes just another tedious jungle chase movie.
The movie takes off from a concept as basic as a videogame, and it sticks to that concept, without surprise.
A film in which the text and subtext-an effortlessly gifted father presses his less-talented son to follow in his footsteps-are in perfect alignment. Alas, only in one of the two does the story end happily.
By the standards of M. Night's Shyamalan's recent films, After Earth is surprisingly not horrible.
It's no classic, but it's a special movie: spectacular and wise.
It's impossible to take this movie seriously, certainly not as seriously as it takes itself.
Shyamalan's worst habits end up overwhelming the most formidable assets at his disposal: the Smiths.
As the story moves along with an almost medicating dullness, so antiseptic and square and insulated from any fun or spark or non-self-seriousness, the entire movie has that plastic-wrap feel of a hermetically-sealed Hollywood vanity project.
The thinness of the story is its greatest undoing, culminating in an anticlimax that is distinctly unsatisfying.
...a step in the right direction for beleaguered filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan...
By any fair measure, After Earth is actually quite a nifty, pacy adventure film, even though it was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who has not made a good film since his 1999 debut The Sixth Sense.
Uneven father-son post apocalyptic space adventure still a minor comeback for the director.
The dejected Will Smith is forced to inject himself with pain relief. The label warns that the drug could cause extreme drowsiness and impaired vision. One can only imagine that Will was suffering from both when he agreed to film this daft script.
This movie... is about nobody's pleasure or deep vision. It is, instead, about positioning two actors in the power structure of the film industry.
It is ironic that a film about a son following the legacy of his father has seen the Smith family shoot themselves in the foot in their second outing as a collective.
Part Scientology tool, part extremely ill-conceived familial gift (wouldn't it be better to let your kid go to school than ask him to endure endless takes in a greenscreen studio?) and part blatant money-making attempt.
Stay home. Paint something. Watch it dry. It'll be more rewarding.
Shyamalan mashes up the man-vs-nature journey with some post-apocalyptic sci-fi stuff, and neither manages to hold audience interest.
Visually impressive but sadly incredulous, "After Earth" is only redeemed by the performances of the Smith family.
At least it's a step-up on The Happening and The Last Airbender. Compared to those, After Earth looks like Citizen Kane. But that's not saying much.
It made me believe I'd been transported to a Hollywood studio backlot, where Smith family movies are made.
It makes Oblivion look like 2001 in comparison.
At its core, the movie is a formulaic coming-of-age story about a precocious son trying to prove his worth to his overbearing absentee father, as well as a predictable tale of wilderness survival against the odds.
If you're going to engage the audience, you need someone who is strong and charismatic. Jaden Smith is not that.
Less exciting or engaging than an old fashioned adventure and filled with wooden dialogue a father wouldn't (or shouldn't) use with his 13 year old son, After Earth is stodgy and rather meaningless
Even the charismatic Will, given the restraints of his robotic character, cannot save his son - or the film. It's a sci-fi thriller, a father-son relationship film, a coming of age story and creature feature all rolled into one confusing package
Audience Reviews for After Earth
Super Reviewer
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- General Cypher Raige: Do you know where we are?
- Kitai Raige: No, sir.
- General Cypher Raige: This is Earth.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Tomatometer predictions? | 39 days ago | 275 |
| Guys, what's wrong with M Night as a director? He's just had some bad writing for his last bunch of films. | 26 days ago | 261 |
| Thoughts? | 36 days ago | 119 |
| The twist at the end of the movie is... | 2 months ago | 71 |
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Latest News on After Earth
September 24, 2013:
Digital Multiplex: After Earth, Only God Forgives, and MoreThis week in streaming video, we've got a summer flop helmed by M. Night Shyamalan, the new thriller...
July 23, 2013:
Terrence Howard Enters Wayward PinesHoward joins Matt Dillon and Carla Gugino in the pending Shyamalan thriller.
June 5, 2013:
Will Smith Hints at Blockbuster RetirementSays he wants to start "finding more danger in my artistic choices."
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Top Headlines
Foreign Titles
- After Earth (DE)
- After Earth (UK)



Top Critic
The plot is as old as the hills, ye olde coming of age drama between a father and his boy, this one happens to be set 1000 years in the future on a distant planet. Put simply Will Smith ('Cypher Raige'...really? is that space age name cool enough for you Mr Smith?) thinks his boy is a failure for not becoming a space ranger action figure type bloke, so there is much resentment between the two. On a final mission Smith Sr. brings Jr. along for the experience, but they hit a snag midflight with pesky asteroids and are forced to crash land on Earth. Now its up to Smith Jr. to save the day and gain his fathers respect by saving both their lives, can he manage it?! tune in next week folks, same channel, same tim...
Oh and there's that whole planet Earth being made uninhabitable from man made pollution issues and humans having to abandon it...part. Now Earth is some huge wild jungle free from mankind (not any trace at all? really? no ruins?) and has evolved into a ferocious predator filled world that time has forgotten. All that was missing was Doug McClure.
The main problem with this film which I think everyone has mentioned is the fact Jaden Smith is a seriously lacking actor, he clearly has no natural talent for it and comes across wooden, lifeless and amateurish...although he is still young for sure. Its quite clear Smith Sr. is creating a fast food/instant movie star situation with his boy by getting him in big movie roles and trying to force him to the top. Smith Sr. wants this to happen big time in my opinion, I'm sure Smith Jr. does too but I don't think he's actually got the flair or natural ability.
The other issue is Smith Sr. tries to act seriously here, or tries something, not sure what, but it doesn't work. His performance is terrible, verging on B-movie standards. He's suppose to be a by the books, hard lined, emotionless, fearless, stoic military leader who certainly doesn't mollycoddle his son in any way. This means Smith Sr. is basically an unlikable character, not good, but it also means that Smith Jr's goal is to be like his father, an emotionless robot with no soul. This pretty much means that both the lead characters are unlikable and emotion in the film is cold and forced, or so it feels.
At no point did I really care about either of the lead characters, even at the very end, I didn't give a hoot frankly. The human emotion was as plastic looking as the ships interior, and that's pretty darn plastic!. So Smith Sr. sits out all the action in this film and simply sits around looking stern, whilst Smith Jr. is our hero and has the same expression of a goldfish the entire time. Oh he also whines quite a bit too, he's actually a bit annoying.
Smith Sr. gives Jr. this all encompassing speech about what to do and what not to do before sending him on his way. Then literately within the first five minutes of setting off the kid ignores what his father says, gets himself chased by a posse of large killer baboons and finally stung by a poisonous leech, no wonder this kid failed his space cowboy test thing. Luckily they just happen to have the correct antidote for the leech bite so never mind. I did feel sorry for him towards the end though, he reaches the tail end of the ship and finds out he's now gotta climb a huge volcanic mountain on top of it because the flare/beacon thing has no signal! these space age service providers huh sheesh!.
The whole film looks good as do all films these days, the special effects are touch and go, CGI in abundance of course but not the best. The scenic views of Nova Prime are very nice at the start as are all the location shots throughout but props and sets are curiously average looking. As I already said the interior of the spaceship is very odd, its all beige and looks like its been made out of cardboard and plastic, visibly shakes too. What was that carwash brush section that Jaden walks through?? what the hell was that?!, plus all the equipment used and the 'Ursa' egg all looked very poor.
One thing that did spring to mind throughout, why doesn't anyone have any futuristic guns of some kind? surely these space ghosts would carry a gun for emergencies?. It just seems so forced that this accident happens and they are stranded on a prehistoric Earth with only a Predator spear to protect them, trying to make it a desperate primeval survival flick much??. Plus the suits both the Smith boys wear, they are futuristic gizmo's right, don't they at least have an internal temperature control? surely that is an obvious gadget to include when designing?. No oxygen supply, battery pack, extra weapons concealed anywhere etc...pretty useless suit really isn't it, all it did was change colour.
The overall message about us humans is pretty definitive if you ask me, we messed up our own planet to the point that we had to abandon it, we then find another planet and claim it as our own when it clearly belongs to another alien race (or is looked after by another alien race). All this says to me is the human race are in fact like a disease, we are infectious and bad for a planets ecosystem. In this film clearly we have upset another race by invading this planet, why don't we just find another planet?.
Its not all bad, I liked the mystery behind the alien race that unleashes the Ursa, nothing given away there which is fine, I quite liked the Ursa too. I think they captured a futuristic Earth without humans nicely...that's about it. Its a weak survival film really, you're never in any sort of fear about what's gonna happen, you know everyone will be OK, no suspense or real drama, its all very shallow and amazingly rudimentary.