After Earth is M. Night Shymalan's latest film starring father/son combo Will and Jaden Smith. This comes three years after his last project, "The Last Airbender" which luckily I haven't seen and never will, but haven't a single positive thing said about it. This truly confirmed Shyamlan's demise over recent years and this film was creating some hype as to whether it would be a return to solid work for the once beloved director/writer.
For me, this film was by no means the return of M. Night Shyamalan in both departments that he worked on. Starting out with the plot, what you see in the trailer is what you get. Now people could be thinking "well of course, the trailer is supposed to tell you what the film is about" but I couldn't help but feel throughout the film that there was going to be more to it. I was sat there pondering and utterly hoping that more depth would be added to this seemingly paper thin plot that was driving this film. There didn't seem to be anything at stake for these characters. Obviously, Jaden Smith's character was trying to signal help so that his father could be treated and they would both be saved. Am I the only one that felt like there could have been something implemented that could have made much more use of the general concept and world that was faintly being hinted at beneath the cracks of After Earth. If Shyamalan and Whitta had really explored the possibilities and directions that could have been taken with this crash landing and journey being taken, it could have made for a much more interesting and unique film.
Which leads me into my next point which is my strongest case for the film being poor in my opinion, which is the writing. After Earth fails on almost every single level from the storytelling right to the depth. I will start with the dialogue in this film. I really don't see the popular trend of implementing comic relief into every movie nowadays but it is well and truly irritating me to the point that I actually wanted to stop watching at some parts. In what way shape or form does this type of film need comic relief moments? It doesn't. Yet Shyamalan and Whitta insisted on trying to break moments of tension or emotion that could have actually added some much needed layers to this bland picture. It completely flopped at every moment where this pathetic, cheesy dialogue was being shoved into the audience's faces and took me out of any scene that I could have potentially been invested or immersed into.
Another aspect that completely failed in relation to the writing was on the whole, my lack of investment in the characters and therefore the story. There was never any moments where I actually cared about what was going on, where I actually was rooting for these characters to succeed or feared for their well being. The lack of tension and development was what made this such a mediocre at best film and easily instantly forgettable for me. Any action sequence or emotional scene just completely passed me by and I was not remotely invested with what was taking place. I expected there to be so much more depth in terms of this father and son, development of their personalities and some insight into the lives that they live. Not only was this not even hinted at or touched upon, it was totally left out and that just took me out of caring about this movie.
As for the film's pacing, this was something that I actually appreciated about it. Despite the opening 20 minutes which was trying to be used to set up the premise and give some back story, the film maintained a relatively faster pacing than previous M. Night Shyamalan films. This was a good aspect because otherwise I would have been utterly bored senseless had it not been for the running time not feeling too heavy. Having said this, in relation to both the direction and pacing, I would have much preferred there to be slower moments in order to give some development and breath life into these characters. I thought it could have worked perfectly if the crash was covered within the first five minutes of the film, or it even begins after the incident has taken place and anything prior to that which serves a purpose to the story is shown via flashback. This way the film could have spent longer getting to the core of these two characters and actually had me caring about what was happening.
I thought that even though a good 1 hour of the film's 1 hour 30 minute running time is spent on earth, it was still underutilized. This links to my previous point of how I would have liked Shyamlan to approach the film in that they could have made this abandoned planet feel much more daunting and give it a real presence. I felt that everything taking place on earth just flew by and didn't really seem to cover much ground; the events just seemed to begin and end within a flash. If the film had been a bit longer, tweaked the script so that development was added and really got to the core of Jaden Smith and Will Smith's distant and faint relationship, it could have made for interesting viewing.
Now the majority of the technological advancements seen were actually quite impressive. I bought into the fact that these could be pieces of equipment that would be used in the future. Such items as the technology used to help Will Smith's character view his son's activity and progress was a great idea and was actually well presented in the film too. I wish they would have played on this aspect a little more and had it served the purpose that Will Smith claimed it had earlier on. He expressed that it allows him to see everything Jaden can and that he will know when to alert him from danger when it is miles away. Despite this, on several occasions interferences or just not being able to sense creatures meant that this equipment didn't really serve as strong of a use as I was expecting it to. Other technology that I appreciated was the machine that indicated what injuries Cypher had suffered and allowed him to stabilize these injuries to assure that he could make it through till help arrived. This was something that I thought was both visually well done and actually added something to the plot as it played on the futuristic setting being portrayed.
What I would have liked to have seen play a more pivotal role to the narrative was this idea of Jaden Smith having to return to the older ways of evolution. What I mean is that he was alone, with only the bare essentials available for him to complete the mission ahead of him. I liked that they tried to implement this but again it was something only slightly touched upon and was certainly underused in my opinion. I would have loved if they had gone about this by stripping everything away from what he had at his disposal, meaning the only tool he had was say a weapon and communication and guidance from his wounded father. They also tried to incorporate this with the whole element of the 'monsters' and that they have evolved to kill humans but again we come across at most around three of four of them and they never really seem to pose this highly spoke about threat. One of the creatures actually helps Jaden Smith's character on one occasion which just completely throws this idea that they put across out of the window.
As for the special effects which are going to be a major talking point of this film, they are as bad as they look in the trailers. Anybody who had seen the trailers for After Earth could fundamentally agree on the fact that the CGI in the film looked terrible; and it certainly lived up to that status. I don't why the effects were as bad as they were but it seems to be an aspect of film making that Shyamalan has grown to love and include in his more recent films. Why? I don't have a clue and this just took me out of the action sequences even more as they were completely fake and even laughable.
Will Smith brings all he can to this bland, emotionless character that has been put in front of him, but sadly it just doesn't click. Now I don't blame Smith for this, as we all know he has shown that he can act well before but he is only doing what he has been told to do. His character is purposefully dull which allowed him to become the first ever person to 'ghost'. But apart from that, it just doesn't work as he is in no form relatable and therefore just serves up the ever repetitive response that it just doesn't make you invested in the film. As for Jaden Smith, for the most part I didn't have a problem with his acting. Aside from the fact that he starts out with some strange accent and slowly loses it around the half way mark of the film, he wasn't as bad as everybody is/will be making him out to be. Withstandable at least.
To conclude the review I'm going to talk about the ending to the film. This was something I really couldn't get my head around. The main underlining tone of the film is this relationship between Will Smith and his son and that he has never really been the father he is expected to and should have been. Once Jaden is successful in sending out the beacon and signalling for help, a rescue crew arrives and they are reunited once again. Despite all of what has happened, the first thought that comes into Will Smith's head is to salute his son. I understand that it was supposed to be his way of indicating he finally respects him but do you not think to do this showing his affection as a father would have both conquered the distance between their relationship and expressed his appreciation for what his son had just done? The way in which it was presented too was extremely comical in my opinion. They clearly tried to replicate the scene where a wounded soldier salutes Will Smith for saving his life in the flashback we see. It was unbelievably generic and corny to see this in the way it was done and to think they actually had the intention to conjure real emotion and depth in to that scene just makes me laugh every time I think of it.
Overall, this film could have actually been a good return for M. Night Shyamalan but it was just poorly crafted, weakly scripted and had no good direction to turn to that had me invested or even interested with the events taking place. I wouldn't say I was necessarily let down though because I wasn't in any way anticipating the film as the trailer accurately represents what is to be expected from the movie. Plus, I have never really been a huge Shyamalan fan as it goes, having enjoyed only three of the films he's made. The man is in a huge decline in his career and I just don't see a way back up for him.
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