After Earth (2013)
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Critics Consensus: After Earth is a dull, ploddingly paced exercise in sentimental sci-fi -- and the latest setback for director M. Night Shyamalan's once-promising career.
Critics Consensus: After Earth is a 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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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 … More
- Rating:
- PG-13 (for sci-fi action violence and some disturbing images)
- Genre:
- Action & Adventure , Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Directed By:
- M. Night Shyamalan
- Written By:
- Gary Whitta
- In Theaters:
- May 31, 2013 Wide
- On DVD:
- Oct 8, 2013
- US Box Office:
- $60.5M
- Runtime:
Cast
-
Will Smith
as General Cypher Raige -
Jaden Smith
as Kitai Raige -
Zoë Kravitz
as Senshi Raige -
Sophie Okonedo
as Faia Raige -
Glenn Morshower
as Commander Velan
Related News & Features
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Nominate the Worst Screen Combo for the 2013 Razzie Awards
– Rotten Tomatoes
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LoginCritic Reviews for After Earth
All Critics (188) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (168) | DVD (2)
As drama, After Earth offers no surprises; as action, it's rarely stimulating; as a parenting manual, it seems that Will has thrown Jaden into water that's a little too deep.
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.
After a not very impressive crash sequence, the film settles into a running battle between young Master Smith and a series of CGI monsters, a schema that sounds tiresome, and is.
The dialogue is as wooden as the acting, and the plot is just silly. Truly, the only thing the film has going for it are some occasionally cool special effects.
Shyamalan mostly stays out of the way, but he still makes himself known, and not in good ways.
The results are mixed.
Calling After Earth the worst film ever made may be overstating things, but it's a disaster zone of Chernobyl-esque proportions.
The effects are second-hand stuff from Alien and Star Trek, spliced with Shyamalan's regular homilies on Personal Growth.
There's an extended animated sequence where atop a high hill, Kitai is surrounded by helix swells of grackles and blackbirds, and the camera turns to reveal waves and waves of burly bison. To the wonder, ho!
Does not enhance reputations or entrance audiences despite, or because of, pretentions to being larger than pure adventure.
It seems proud of its predictability only because we should feel privileged to watch Will Smith and his son act in a second movie together.
Pompous, humourless tosh.
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.
Audience Reviews for After Earth
Boredom, as it relates to film, occurs when the audience is unable and unwilling to care about the story. After Earth is a prime example of a boring movie. Its premise is set up in broad strokes, never giving the audience time to believe in it. It's too violent for kids and too childish for the summer crowd. Lastly, the whole film feels tailor made to turn Jaden Smith into the next big star, and based on his performance here, that is an expectation he is unable to meet and does not deserve. Even if it isn't as bad as it's been made out to be, After Earth is still instantly forgettable.
MoreSuper Reviewer
I didn't hate this. I guess that I heard so many terrible reviews, that I was expecting a real stinker. The only weakness in this film was the quality of the animals. With today's CGI abilities, the DIRECTOR could have done a lot better in this area, especially with the big budget this film boasted. Story line, and acting were up to par. M. Shyamalan needs to give up making movies...he is poison.
MoreSuper Reviewer
Danger is real. Fear is a choice.
Not a bad movie! This was a great, entertaining, emotionally charged sci-fi flick and I enjoyed every minute of it. I admit I was caught into the M. Night hoopla and expected a twist ending but this one is just a straight forward mainstream adventure flick. One of the final scenes between father and son was near brilliant and almost brought tears to my eyes. The special effects were very well done and some of the monsters and beasts they created were epic in stature and should be looked at as being fun and well done. I guess I just don't understand the expectations people had from this. It seems that people have a real grudge against young entertainers like Jaden Smith but I am not one of them and I encourage you if you love sci-fi to watch this and simply enjoy it.
One thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity's escape from Earth, Nova Prime has become mankind's new home. Legendary General Cypher Raige returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai. When an asteroid storm damages Cypher and Kitai's craft, they crash-land on a now unfamiliar and dangerous Earth. As his father lies dying in the cockpit, Kitai must trek across the hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon. His whole life, Kitai has wanted nothing more than to be a soldier like his father. Today, he gets his chance.
Super Reviewer
After many tough gruelling auditions spanning many gruelling weeks, Jaden Smith was finally awarded the starring role in his fathers hopeful sci-fi epic...oh wait.
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.
Super Reviewer
After Earth Quotes
- General Cypher Raige:
- We are all telling ourselves a story.
- General Cypher Raige:
- Danger is very real but fear is a choice.
- General Cypher Raige:
- Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist.
- General Cypher Raige:
- Do you know where we are?
- Kitai Raige:
- No, sir.
- General Cypher Raige:
- This is Earth.
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