After Earth Reviews

Shyamalan's worst habits end up overwhelming the most formidable assets at his disposal: the Smiths.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

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.

Full Review

The thinness of the story is its greatest undoing, culminating in an anticlimax that is distinctly unsatisfying.

Full Review | Original Score: C

...a step in the right direction for beleaguered filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

Uneven father-son post apocalyptic space adventure still a minor comeback for the director.

Full Review | Original Score: C+

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/10

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Stay home. Paint something. Watch it dry. It'll be more rewarding.

Full Review | Original Score: 0/5

Shyamalan mashes up the man-vs-nature journey with some post-apocalyptic sci-fi stuff, and neither manages to hold audience interest.

Full Review

Visually impressive but sadly incredulous, "After Earth" is only redeemed by the performances of the Smith family.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

It made me believe I'd been transported to a Hollywood studio backlot, where Smith family movies are made.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

It makes Oblivion look like 2001 in comparison.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

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.

Full Review

If you're going to engage the audience, you need someone who is strong and charismatic. Jaden Smith is not that.

Full Review | Original Score: C

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

Full Review

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

Full Review