First off, this is Tom with an opening statement. Why didn't I see this movie? Because M Night Shyamalan can jump off a cliff for all I care. He ruined my favorite television series adaptation, The Last Airbender. He's sucked ever since post Unbreakable. Very few movies have me so convinced of their poor quality to not go and see them. But with M Night shooting out great trailers followed by awful movies for the last few flicks of his, I knew that going to see After Earth would be a complete waste of my time. My close friend and active journalist, Ben Burnham, chose to go and see this movie. He came back and told me his thoughts, and was just as surprised as I was. Sure, I'm not going to support this god awful abomination of a director. But perhaps you would be pleasantly surprised by the words of my colleague.
That being said, the following review in no way supports the views of McHugh Reviews as a blog, or Tom McHugh as a person.
After Earth - A Review by Ben Burnham.
I have to admit, I’m at a bit of a loss as to what I actually thought of After Earth, the latest sci-fi effort from Will Smith. It’s a movie flawed in many ways; the story and characters are under-developed, the dialogue occasionally cringe-worthy, and the CG creatures tend to look awfully…CG.
Will Smith, who came up with the story and produced the film along with his wife, made the strange choice of bringing M. Night Shyamalan onboard to co-write and direct. There’s no twist in After Earth; well, unless you didn’t know that you were watching a Shyamalan film, which wouldn’t be surprising given the great lengths the marketing team took to hide it.
The plot here feels far too thin and straightforward to offer much in the way of surprises or twist endings. In fact I got the feeling multiple times while watching After Earth that there was more to it than what made it to the screen, especially as it rushes through its opening scenes showcasing the Earth’s demise in a brief montage with little in the way of an explanation.
Essentially, the story centers around the relationship between the characters played by Will and his son Jaden; the hardened military father who treats his son more like a soldier than his son. At the urging of his wife, Will Smith’s character agrees to take his son on a mission to transport an Ursa (dangerous creature) to another part of the galaxy for training purposes. The ship gets caught in an asteroid shower and crashes, leaving Will’s character near death and his son with the burden of venturing out onto the ruined Earth to retrieve the ship’s backup rescue beacon. It feels exactly like a video game, and yes, of course the creature being transported breaks free and serves as the “final boss.”
I went into this expecting to see a truly bad movie; it’s sitting at a 12% on Rotten Tomatoes and Shyamalan’s most recent film was so awful that I don’t even want to name it here. And as I watched the rushed voiceover opening and heard the characters’ strange accents (Jaden Smith sounds like he’s doing a bad Bill Clinton impression) I thought I was in for a 90 minute prison sentence.
But then something strange happened. As the minutes ticked by, I found myself being genuinely pulled into the movie’s world. It began with a couple of “oh, that was kinda cool” moments here and there aboard the ship. And then it crashes in a scene that’s genuinely well-filmed and it was as I watched Jaden’s character venture out into the uninhabitable Earth to race against his depleting oxygen to acquire the emergency beacon, I found myself compelled to see what would happen next.
M. Night Shyamalan’s fallen far from The Sixth Sense, and the writing here can be very weak. But as a director, he stages some cool action scenes, a good sense of place, and even a creepy moment or two that reminds you that he was once a promising horror film director. At only 90 minutes, After Earth doesn’t overstay its welcome (I’m sure there will be many deleted scenes on the DVD) and it likely won’t remain in your mind long after you’ve seen it.
But for what it is, I found it to be a fun ride. I wouldn’t call it a good movie, necessarily, but I wouldn’t say that it’s bad. For what it’s worth, it’s the best Shyamalan movie I’ve seen since Signs….and I guess I’ll leave it at that.
Rank - 3/5
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