After Earth
Starring: Jaden Smith, Will Smith
Directed By: M. Night Shyamalan
Reviewed by Danielle Muir

[rating: 3/5]

It certainly won’t save his ailing career, but Shyamalan’s latest directorial effort After Earth isn’t utterly and completely a shambles.  But it comes close.

Essentially this is Will Smith’s attempt at giving his son Jaden’s acting career a high profile vehicle. The two play father and son team Katai and Cypher, who are the sole survivors after crash-landing on ‘Earth’.  Their own distress beacon is broken – leaving it up to Katai to venture across 100kms to find the tail wreckage and locate a second beacon as Cypher’s legs have been broken on impact.  Two problems – the vicious ‘Ursa’ (which uses the smell of fear to locate its prey) has escaped from its capsule, and Earth itself has evolved to kill mankind.

Or so the trailer led us to believe.  One of the disappointments of After Earth is its lack of imagination.  I was hoping that there would be more intriguing ways that Earth would repel and attack humankind other than giant monkeys and giant birds.  More complex flora and fauna would have added an extra level of thoughtfulness.

The structure is simple and one of the films strongest elements – guided by his father, an inexperienced but headstrong Katai must overcome the elements to reach the beacon.  Whilst unlikeable and amateur at the beginning, Jaden pulls out his acting chops where it counts which is sufficient to keep the film afloat (but lingering shots emphasise his limited range).  And of course Will is his usual powerhouse self as the stoic Cypher, and his descriptions of Earth and describing the risks to his son are some of the most entertaining.

Most of the sub-par elements arise from the CGI and also the set design.  After Earth is one of the first films to be projected in 4K resolution – clearly Shyamalan didn’t anticipate how above and beyond he’d have to make his set dressings, because every scene that isn’t on location actively looks like a prop.  The worst offender is the broken capsule in which the ‘Ursa’ has escaped – it looks like brown Styrofoam with spools of yellow cotton splayed on its floor.  In addition, the films horrendously disjointed opening (jarring, unusual edits and unintelligible backstory) contains a shocking VFX shot that looks like the intern was put in charge.  Apart from the spaceships, none of the CGI is really up to par.  So next time a filmmaker choses to project in 4K, please understand the implications – i.e. increasing the quality of everything.

Anti-Shyamalan’s will have fun ripping on the poor elements of After Earth, but once Katai starts on its mission it’s not really so bad.  However, compared to the other sci-fi’s being pumped out this year, After Earth isn’t a blip on the radar of its competitors.