After Earth is proof positive that M. Night Shyamalan is more
sinned against than sinning. Yes, he has made some hysterically bad
films, but that is no reason to put all his films through the shredder. The Last Airbender (2010) was great fun and didn’t deserve all those Razzies. After Earth, though it
At 100 minutes, the movie is beautifully shot in some super locations,
has some heavy duty philosophy (“danger is real, fear is a choice”) but
moves briskly liberally sprinkled with money shots.
Thousand years after earth becomes inhabitable and the human race moves
to another planet, a celebrated father Cypher and his son Kitai are the
only survivors on earth following a crash. Cypher is wounded and Kitai
has to traverse 100 miles of hostile territory — everything on earth has
evolved to destroy humans — to set off a beacon that will get them
help.
Kitai’s journey with Cypher directing him from the fallen spaceship even
as he slips in and out of consciousness can be taken as a metaphoric
journey where the father learns to let go (there is a communication
breakdown) and the son conquers his fears and his feelings of
inadequacy.
For those who don’t get it, there is the monster, ursa, who preys on
fear and the only way to defeat ursa is by conquering your fear at which
point you become invisible to the creature. The crash-landing space
ship, the waterfall, the volcano and the gigantic condor were some of
the awe-inspiring visuals. Of the actors, Will Smith as Cypher looked
rather grim — maybe he didn’t want his superstardom to eclipse, rising
star son, Jaden who is consistently awful as Kitai. For a large part of
the movie, it is just father and son on screen. Kudos to Shyamalan for
keeping us riveted.
With World Environment Day just gone by, the subliminal message of the
earth fighting back is way cool and we can forgive Smith Sr. for this
vanity project — he earned the right with ID 4 and Men In Black!
Genre: Sci-Fi adventure
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Sophie Okonedo, Zoë Isabella Kravitz
Storyline: Father and son learn universal truths through an extreme situation
Bottomline: An effective and touching thriller
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