Sorry I’m late with this. I wanted to watch it two weeks ago but then I kept getting more interviews for movies I had to watch first. I really expected to like After Earth because I loved screenwriter Gary Whitta’s previous sci-fi movie, The Book of Eli. I love the genre of survival, post-apocalyptic or otherwise, and I remain an M. Night Shyamalan defender.
I think Shyamalan has continued making the same movies we loved the first three times (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs). They are suspenseful movies in which nothing actually happens. That’s his thing, he builds tension out of inaction. That was the twist we all took for granted in Sixth Sense (no one actually addressed Malcolm), a superhero origin by simply not getting hurt rather than developing powers, and an alien invasion from the point of view of people who were not Will Smith.
So when it gets to The Village or The Happening, I think it’s unfair to complain that Shyamalan is trying to make movies about nonsense like wind and plants. That’s what he always did. It’s like complaining Tarantino has become self-indulgent. He’s always been self-indulgent. It was just new when we saw Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, so it’s too late to start complaining about Death Proof. I’m with Witney on The Last Airbender too.
After Earth really is a bore though. Funny, Shyamalan made the anti-Will Smith movie in Signs and falters with an actual Will Smith movie. There are many voices involved – Whitta, Shyamalan and Will Smith – which may explain where some of the narrative problems come from. It’s hard to know who wanted what in the movie, and the problems aren’t the same ones that M. Night haters usually cite. It is a bigger canvas for him, perhaps the kind he was trying to tap into with Airbender, but going further off course this time.
It begins with a misappropriation of “in medias res,” of which After Earth is hardly the only offender these days, but it’s the beginning of its narrative problems. “In medias res” is the dramatic device of beginning the story in the middle of things to maximize the impact of a backstory reveal. See classic plays like Oedipus Rex. These days it’s come to mean “start with an action scene, then flash back to all the explaining and come back to the action scene in the middle.” TV shows use it a lot for the cold open, but it’s become too commonplace in movies too. Even the beloved Iron Man does it, and I find it that film’s frustrating weakness.
Theatrical Review: William Bibbiani says “After Earth is no Titan A. E.“
Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) and his father Cypher (Will Smith) crashland on a planet. Won’t it be exciting to find out what led to that exciting crash? Well, if it wouldn’t have been exciting in chronological order, and it’s not any more exciting now.
After destroying our planet, humans evacuate earth only to land on another planet full of monsters that kill us. They smell the pheromones we emit when scared, so our greatest warrior is Cypher Raige, who has no fear so he is invisible to them. Kitai, meanwhile, fails to qualify for the Rangers so there is some family tension at home with Cypher pushing his son with tough love or abusive disapproval, depending on your criteria. When they crash, Cypher is injured so he has to send Kitai off on a mission to find the wreckage and activate a beacon for rescue. It’s a futuristic walkabout, or Merantau (from the folks who brought us The Raid!).
Separating Cypher and Kitai is the biggest narrative mistake. It’s not so much that it takes Will Smith out of the movie, though that is palpable, but it requires way too convoluted a setup for their remote communications and exposition about Kitai’s mission. Kitai’s adventure is not very exciting either. He flies in a wingsuit, fights monkeys and runs from a lot of CGI future creatures.
Shyamalan still shoots well. He presents the scenery in all its glory. He’s just not filming anything interesting happening in those beautiful frames. Cypher is a good stoic character, not the Will Smith we want, but he’s not coasting on that charm either. I wouldn’t blame Jaden for anything. He’s got a clichéd character seeking parental approval and, we learn, overcoming a tragic backstory. In another context that could have been the performance of a lifetime.
The film’s thematic philosophy is problematic. It was all over the marketing, but as explained by Cypher, fear is a choice. Danger is real, but fear is how we choose to react to it. Okay, so far so good, but Cypher says fear is not real. It’s something we make up about possible future events that don’t exist. Yes, fear is a choice but you’re implying that it’s a bad choice. Sometimes it’s not. Fear is an internal warning system we have to protect us from danger, to guide our decisions. I’m all for some new age spirituality, I use The Secret every day myself, but you went a bit too far with that one.
The bonus features are actually really good. It looks like all the ideas in the movie are sound and the work of creating them was sincere. Sometimes it just doesn’t come together. Watching Jaden train is a little more exciting than the action scenes in the movie, and all the clips of Will on set feature all the humor we love and the life lessons they were trying to get in the film. In fact, Will is on set with Jaden reading the lines for their characters’ remote communication, which only reinforces how much more vital it would have been were they in those scenes together.
An alternate opening is confusing. It doesn’t really show anything different and it’s not fully animated, so it’s a storyboard that isn’t clear what is so alternate about it. “1000 Years in 300 Minutes” is just a montage of B-roll, so aside from being mislabeled (how exactly does it represent a millennium?) it’s a cool montage. Their XPRIZE challenge for teen competitors to build a robot is actually pretty heartening; it’s cool to see how many talented kids are out there creating things, not just the winners.
I will still be an M. Night defender, but After Earth is his worst movie. Lady in the Water may be ridiculous but it’s so ambitiously ridiculous it’s at least interesting. Maybe he’ll go back to making movies where nothing happens but it’s really suspenseful. I have every faith that all the artists involved here will continue to do great work. This was just a weak spot.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
