Shyamalan is not new to making movies about parent-child relationship. I have seen two other films of his - The Sixth Sense and Signs - and both had a strong family component. But sitting through After Earth, there's always this inescapable feeling about how superficial the family drama was. This is a particularly big problem because the film doesn't have much else going for it. Without a strong story or even some high concept set pieces worth talking about, the film crumbles.
Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) witnesses the death of his sister as a child and has been scarred ever since. The sole purpose of his life is to fill his father's over-sized shoes and make him proud. The only problem is that his father Cypher Raige (Will Smith) is a celebrated Military General who is absolutely fearless. Not fearless in Taylor Swift terms, but the kind of fearless that could be used as an excuse for his minimal vocabulary of expressions. After the Father-Son duo crash-land and get marooned on Earth, Kitai is required to seek a transmitter which is their only hope for survival. On this supposedly epic journey, Kitai must fight the demons - both personal and the kind that senses fear and tears one apart - to eventually become the Karate Kid.
The science (Scientology?) in this sci-fi is specifically vague and unimaginative. Set a thousand years in the future where humans have left Earth behind and colonized some distant planet, the mythology in After Earth is severely under-wrought. Sporting some bland whale-shaped spacecrafts with bamboo interiors and awful looking seat-belts, the sense of wonder so essential to sci-fi is clearly missing. It may or may not be an esoteric Scientology propaganda movie, but it definitely is one lazy, lifeless piece of work. After Earth looks and feels like a Smiths star vehicle under which Shyamalan unceremoniously got caught.
Apparently, every species on Earth has evolved to kill Humans. Through the film, we learn that that might not entirely be true. We see instances of intelligence and compassion displayed by animals, but this sub-plot is never completely explored. I hope the idea isn't to address these issues in the sequels. Wait, who am I kidding.. did you see how much money this film made in its first week? LOL.
It is like watching the Scientology version of The Karate Kid. Danger is real, but watching this movie is a choice.
It is like watching the Scientology version of The Karate Kid. Danger is real, but watching this movie is a choice.