After Earth Review

When I was watching this, I realized Will Smith needed to be the General in Star Trek, not Tyler Perry, but...if they switched places After Earth wouldn't make a cent in the box office unless it was titled .."Madea Goes to Space"

After Earth Review 

                 Hey readers. I plan to make this review short and sweet because I am going to write a spoiler review to go on this movies. This movie has been bruised abused and battered by critics. However Audiences have been more lenient with the film calling it "not bad, but not good". I have to be real with you guys. Any space sci-fi  released a month after Star-Trek is not going to hold a candle to the Box office Giant, but to say that the movie is horrible is just plain biased. Here is my review of   M. Night Shyamalan's 
After Earth.

Cast and Crew 

             After Earth was Directed by M. Night Shyamalan..ouch...There was a time that a movie could be proud of being directed by this guy. M. Night did Direct 'The Sixth Sense' and 'Unbreakable'. Then his head exploded. That was when we started seeing movies like 'The Village', 'Lady in the Water' where he casted himself to play the greatest movie maker in the world who would save the world with his writing...Then 'The Happening' ...then..'The Last Airbender' how did you lose the rights to the name 'Avatar' than air your horrible 'Avatar' movie at the same time they played the 'blue people Avatar'? M. Night, you idiot ! I have to call him that because he made a mistake thinking he could compete then, and was a fool thinking it would be a bright idea airing this movie AFTER Star Trek! I'm ranting.. bad director, bad choice Will Smith, and Sony! 

                This movie stars Will and Jaden Smith, the father, son duo return to this Sci-Fi thriller that is not about the Pursuit of Happiness, but instead , the pursuit of Fearlessness. Will Smith, is great, as always and his son...is son is a young actor. Any Critic in their right mind knew the first two Harry Potter movies had a cast of not so good child actors. However, the cast of that series all grew into some quite talented kids all because they were given a chance. Jaden is not an Oscar worthy actor, but the kid HAS talent. I believed some of the scenes involving him and really do not see this as a miss cast. 

The Story 

                This is the story of a futuristic world where Humans have nearly destroyed the earth and were forced to re-locate to a planet called Nova Prime. The Earth would evolve over the thousands of years to defend itself against Human Habitation and is classified uninhabitable to humans. However, when a Father and War Hero brings his son along on a mission, they crash land on the earth and are forced into an intense survival situation and all responsibility is left on the hands of a child. I feel that there is nothing wrong with this story. It was very emotionally driven and even well presented. There is another aspect to the story that I will leave to the viewers. 

The Presentation 

(Good Tasting Stuff) 

                 For this movie presentation has to be broken down in to the good and bad tasting.. because this movie has a bit of both. The main character wears this high tech suit that is able to inform the wearer about danger by changing colors...That suit was cool and it really added to the story when you see the suit change. The new Earth that the kid explores is also very lush and interesting. It allowed for some beautiful cinematography and musical set pieces that actually wowed me. Jaden's performance was considered to be overly childish by many but I have to say that his performance was part of the story. I do have to say that I felt that he was pandering to the audience too much with some facial expressions but over all I think he did a good job. I feel that the story of Cypher played by Will Smith was Excellent and I did not feel that he was an emotionless asshole the way may other critics felt. Every father in Cinema doesn't have to follow that formula of perfection. He looked as though he really loved his kids and family and his emotions were difficult to express due to the trauma he went through in the wars. There are things he does that speaks volumes about his actual personality.

The BAD Tasting 

               OK There are tow scenes I could not get over . One of which I know for a fact is the reason why some people are upset about this movie. One scene involve a strictly M. Night Moment. I was watching the movie like "Why is this scene in the movie" There is no reason for the scene and the next scene is even more ridiculous and seems to only be in the movie for the sake of ...being in the movie. I can advocate for the scene, but only if the story gave the audience more about this After Earth that could have made this scene possible. The scene itself knocked the movie down a whole grade. M. Night, there is a time to be you, and a time to sit back and think realistically for your movie....please start thinking!

The Rating 

I have an issue with critics over-bashing this movie. There are some serious plot holes,
Some scenes that don't need to be in the movie, there are some obviously green
screened shots, and the script is a little bland. However, there is a solid story ant fairly
solid performance by Jaden Smith. There have been many many other child actors who have done
far worse performance wise and yet we were able to overlook their lack of talent. It is amazing how
a child actor who plays alongside his father in a movie could ever be seen as "Pimping" in Will Smith's part.
Its as if we forgot that Charlie Sheen. He was a mediocre actor and son of Martin Sheen, and we allowed him to rise into super stardom, with several leading roles he did not have the chops to fulfill. But eventually even Charlie Sheen pumped out some decent movies. Give the boy a chance, This movie was ..

Satisfying