Next in our journey is a story created by Will Smith and directed by M.Night Shyamalan, After Earth. Not only did Smith come up with the story he repeats his duo performance with his son Jaden. From their first appearance together in Pursuit of Happyness 7 years previous, we are met with now 15 year old Jaden.
The story opens right in the action, not knowing why anything is happening we see Cypher Raige (Will Smith) sucked out of a corridor where Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) is seat-belted into a secure chair. What follows is a voice-over sequence explaining how the Human race has killed Earth forcing everyone to flee into space and finding residence on an alternative planet, its all very standard as a montage, much like the introduction to Mad Max 2.
After the intro montage, we have the full explanation as to why the Raiges were on a ship that has clearly faced disaster and the introduction of a fear sensing alien monster who can only see by sensing the pheromones released by fear. Kitai (Smith Sr) was the first to discover that being devoid of fear made you invisible, known as 'Ghosting'. There are no prizes for guessing what is going to happen, even within the first ten minutes it's pretty easy to call, but with all films of this ilk, it's how spot on you are with guessing what's going to happen. With M.Night he has generally managed to keep people second-guessing and hiding a decent plot twist within his films.
At this point I will take a step back as I introduce my thoughts on the cast; Jaden Smith provides the voice over for the opening history sequence which is painfully wooden and devoid of any feeling. It is so wooden in fact, that you really fail to invest in what he is saying. There is mention of a new planet the Human Race now resides on, but for the life of me I'm not sure what it was, although in fairness it's not actually that relevant. What also struck me was the strange accent he has. I wouldn't say I was great at US regional accents, but I think it is either Texan or Civil War Southern, it's really hard to pin point what it's supposed to be. I won't be too critical of Smith Jr, as at this point he is only 15, it is only his third film and not only that, you have the mighty talent that is Will Smith as your dad and co-star. But his acting was quite naïve and almost childish at times, the only times I was convinced were during his emotional exchanges with Smith Sr, which lets face it, I'm sure is not just acting but bringing in a touch of real life. However, not to be too critical, it was an ok performance by a new acting talent.
Will Smith plays the 'ghosting' warrior who is a Human hero, respected by all who have served with him and leader of many missions. A role that, given that he came up with the story, should be perfect for him. But the choice to make him devoid of not just fear but all real emotions doesn't quite fit, let's face it Smith Sr is a comic, emotional and charismatic actor who normally fills all performance with his charm and personality. So to take all that away from a great actor and make him so devoid of emotion or personality, it doesn't really work with what is clearly trying to be delivered in the reconnection between father and son. The result is you never really establish whether the two characters actually like each other, even at the end . Of course they respect and love each other but I don't think the script or acting lends to how they hoped the reconnection would be portrayed. Then the accent is there again, now both the Smith's are using this strange accent neither of them really are able to deliver and I have to say it does take some getting used to.
Essentially this is a film about the two characters and to be honest the only reason for any other cast is for backstory which is patchy at best and downright meaningless at some points.
Visually this is a nice film, lots of open landscape shots of a nature reclaimed Earth, oh that's right they have crash landed on Earth where everything has evolved to kill Humans. A nice touch, but if you missed them say it was Earth you wouldn't know, and I doubt it would make much difference to your experience. I felt they missed a trick by not subtly paying reference to some landmarks, a rusted destroyed Chicago or Miami in the distance (it's always the Golden Gate Bridge or Empire state in these types of films) would have given it that relatable 'oh yeah it's Earth' vibe. But as I say, it's a world so evolved it makes no odds to the story if it's Earth other than its just a nice touch.
As I said M.Night Shyamalan is normally good at keeping a twist secret, you may know essentially what will happen in the end, but in this he failed to deliver any twist or change to what you suspected would be the ending. As I say I realised within ten minutes what was going to happen, but I didn't realise how accurate I would be and that's not a brag on my part, it was really obvious. Again, it's how spot on you are with guessing that decides how good a film of this kind is, there needs to be something that takes you by surprise in some way, just something that makes you realise you couldn't have written the screenplay or directed it yourself. I was so accurate that the final act of this action thriller was then so without excitement, mixed with Jaden's poor portrayal of fearless calm, that I actually switched off. I knew what was happening and how it was going to happen, which for an M.Night film is quite disappointing. Whilst I don't think he's the best writer/director, he has created some classic films, many of which I have in my collection and look forward to reviewing.
There is also a science glitch in this sci-fi film. There is the need to send a communication beacon into space to facilitate their rescue, but there is to much ionic interference in the atmosphere. There is the need to get to higher ground, above the ionic interference, are there mountains? Yes there are, lets go. 'No no please don't go to that one' I found myself muttering to the screen, that's a volcano spewing out ash clouds that cause, you guessed it, ionic interference. Errors like that I cannot abide, was there no-one in the process of making the movie that said that doesn't work! But again that's just me being picky about accuracy and so forth.
However, on the whole this isn't a bad film but nor was it a good film which can be attributed to the way this was written, directed to a certain extent and the Smith's not quite hitting the mark, with either their performance or the very strange accent. I honestly cannot stress the accent enough, it really did throw me and I really don't understand why it was used. It's a shame because the concept and story is actually amazing, I think in the right hands it could be a great mini-series in this era of Netflix and Prime created programs.
So Will Smith, if you are reading this get on to those Netflix peeps.....
Farquards Score - 2 star or 4/10
IMDB - 4.8/10 (183,514)
Metascore - 33 (41 Critic Reviews)
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