After Earth – Credits Roll

Unfortunately, we are long past the Shyamaissance (1999-2004). In those days, Shyamalan didn’t miss, producing four truly wonderful films. It has now become clear to me that I am in the middle of a dark period in his filmography, that began in 2006. I hope he can come out of his slump soon.

Will Smith and son Jaden Smith star in this futuristic science fiction action film. After crash landing on a dangerous planet, later revealed to be Earth, survivors Cypher (Will) and Kitai (Jaden) must work together to survive after Cypher is badly injured and cannot move his legs. Kitai must travel through the deadly terrain and evade a dangerous creature that can literally smell fear in order to send a distress call to be rescued.

This film is low on chips, high on dip. That is to say, it’s all spectacle and little plot or character. This movie had a 130 million dollar budget, and I can only imagine most of it went to the Smith family instead of making the CGI, script, direction, or props look good. And, while I feel bad to blame a child actor for doing a poor job, the young Smith contributed nothing positive toward this film. If I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t even believe they were actually father and son.

Red flag number one. This film was developed and pitched by Will Smith to M Night. Not the other way around. Smith called Shyamalan *after* The Last Airbender and asked him to direct this. That’s wild to me. It was also supposed to be the start of a franchise… You can probably guess my feelings on that idea.

While mostly uninteresting, the characters of Kitai and Cypher have a small arc throughout the middle portion of the film that I enjoyed. Kitai, being a teenager, thinks he knows better than his father and often ignores his advice and keeps his mistakes a secret from him in order to not let his father be disappointed in him. This aspect of their relationship was interesting because it felt real, especially when Cypher finds out the truth.

Most of this film is set on Earth. And while there are a few instances of animals like baboons and eagles attacking them, the biggest threat is the Ursa, an alien creature loose on Earth after the crash. The idea of a creature that smells your fear is, well, scary! However, of course this concept is wasted as it ends up not being very important to the story until the anti-climactic act three.

While this movie isn’t irredeemable, it is pretty disappointing. I would have a hard time recommending this to anyone who isn’t a Shyamalan or Will Smith completionist.

Shyamalan Rankings:

After Earth is not something I’d ever want to watch again. There’s a strong line of demarcation between Wide Awake and The Happening that I wouldn’t want to cross.

1. Signs
2. The Sixth Sense
3. Unbreakable
4. The Village
5. Wide Awake
6. The Happening
7. Lady in the Water
8. After Earth
9. Praying With Anger
10. The Last Airbender

And with that – we are 2/3 of the way through M Night’s filmography! Only five more to go.

Join me next week as I cover Shyamalan’s next film, 2015’s The Visit.