Movie Review: After Earth (2013)
Posted By Michelle Ealey on May 31, 2013
Stories about the relationship between fathers and sons are not new, but After Earth tries to put a new spin on the tale by setting the story 1000 years into the future. Starring Will Smith and his son, Jaden, After Earth wastes a lot of resources on a convoluted backstory and a predictable plot.
The film starts with a lengthy voice-over by Kitai (Jaden Smith) explaining how 1000 years ago the Earth became inhabitable for humans. Only so many humans escaped to space. We found another planet, but there were aliens, the Ursa, who could smell our fear, easily finding us. Humans were saved by people like Cypher Ridge, (Will Smith), who are ghosts, individuals who are able to turn off their fear. Because the Ursa can’t see the ghosts, they can just walk up to them and kill them. Cypher is considered the best; he’s a legend, and his son struggles with coming into his own. This mirror of the Smiths’ real life suits them to star in such a story.
Kitai wants to be a Ranger like his father, but he doesn’t quite measure up in the field. His father is coming home, and Kitai wants to tell his father that he was Ranger material, but he feels he disappoints his father again with his news. After a conversation with his wife, Cypher decides to bring Kitai along with him on a trip to another planet. Here’s when After Earth’s plot runs like a checklist. Once the set-up is complete, the rest of the story is telegraphed with no surprises along the way.
Cypher (Will Smith) tells Kitai (Jaden Smith) he has to get the beacon.
The dangerous alien, the Ursa, is in a cage on the ship. The ship runs into a mysterious storm with asteroids and debris. Somehow, when the pilots “travel” (the film’s version of warp speed), they somehow end up at Earth even though Earth is quarantined and no human has been there in 1000 years, so why Earth’s coordinates are even in the ship’s navigation system is not explained. The ship crashes on Earth. The main section lands in one area, and the tail section is 100 kilometers away. Of course the emergency beacon is destroyed and the other one is in the tail section. But there’s power. Cypher turns on the ship’s computer (why he can’t send a message is not explained), and Kitai’s navi-band works, allowing father to communicate with son as the son goes to activate the other emergency beacon. Everyone in the main section died on impact, except father and son. Cypher did break both of his legs, but with that many people on board, it’s just too convenient that they are the only survivors.
Son wants to make Dad proud. Dad has a special ability. They are in a dangerous place. An alien that can smell fear is on the loose (the Ursa survived the crash too—how convenient for the plot). Can you see where this is going? I did after the first thirty minutes. I sat in the theater waiting, wanting for a surprise, but none came.
The film tries hard to make us care about Cypher and Kitai. There are a lot of flashbacks to times when Kitai’s sister was alive. We see how she died; an Ursa killed her, but I kept wondering why she didn’t get inside the bubble thing Kitai hid in. The bubble thing had enough room for both of them to squeeze into for a short time, time enough for the alien to lose interest and move on. Kitai has survivor’s guilt, which is one of the issues father and son argue about, but these scenes don’t have a lot of weight because father and son aren’t in the same room for any of the resolutions to their issues. Cypher is in the ship, and Kitai is on his journey, so it is scene after scene of them talking to the air. A great moment to show how dangerous the Ursa really are was missed. I’m sure the scene was crafted to be a big Will Smith moment, but when Cypher describes the moment he learned how to ghost would have been the right time for a flashback. Cypher tells Kitai, and we have to watch Will Smith talk and Jaden react for about three minutes. It’s a long three minutes because the audience has no point of reference. The audience keeps getting told how ruthless the Ursa are. By the time we see an Ursa in action, the audience can predict the resolution to the situation before the big moments happen, draining the sequence of any tension and suspense.
Kitai Ridge takes a knee to center himself.
Because the story is predictable, I had time to notice other inconsistencies and instances of lazy science and storytelling. The reason humans had to leave Earth is because we ruined the environment. We developed sophisticated means of space travel, but we didn’t take the time and resources to save our own habitat. Also, we managed to take the right humans, the ones who know how to properly balance technology and the needs of our habitat because the new settlement, Nova Prime, is technologically advanced and in perfect harmony with the new planet. Earth isn’t barren. After humans left, life evolved and thrived. Humans are animals; we are mammals, primates, and apes. If a climate is inhospitable to us, then a lot of other organisms would have gone extinct as well. Humans are the ultimate weed species; we have learned how to adapt, and we inhabit practically every biome. We have settlements in Antarctica and have transformed the desert into an oasis (Abu Dhabi). I thought the Shyamalan twist was going to be encountering the descendants of humans, but there are none. The big hurdle for Kitai is to get to a warm spot by nightfall because the temperature drops. Humans have survived ice ages, when it was cold all the time, so the chances of monkeys, big cats, and birds surviving the climate changes and humans going extinct are low. Either many species died with us, or many survived.
With a predictable plot, the film is dull, and the backstory hurts the film. There is no Shyamalan twist. In fact, the presence of Shyamalan is absent; the film feels generic, like anyone could have directed the film. The lack of a director’s touch is probably due to the story being by Will Smith as a vehicle for Jaden to be a star. Their real-life relationship is ripe material for an emotionally complex story. If someone had insisted on a better story, then the setting of After Earth would have been justified.
Check out our other review for After Earth:
Royal Lance Eustache’s Review
Comments
Leave a Reply
Please note: Comment moderation is currently enabled so there will be a delay between when you post your comment and when it shows up. Patience is a virtue; there is no need to re-submit your comment.