Movie Review: “After Earth”
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Creatas/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — I root for Will Smith. I root for M. Night Shyamalan. I also root for the New York Mets. Do the math.
These days, making a sci-fi film about the future means the Earth has probably been destroyed, the human race lives somewhere else or is fighting to survive, or zombies have taken over. It’s always some sort of post-apocalyptic dystopian vision, and that’s what we have here in After Earth. We’re well over a thousand years into the future and, as we’re shown in a nice montage of natural disasters accompanied by a Jaden Smith voiceover, the Earth has become inhospitable for the human race so we’re forced to find another home. That new home is called Nova Prime.
Jaden Smith is Kitai Raige, a ranger cadet who desperately wants to be a ranger but is once again passed over because while the kid’s got skills, he’s reckless. Disappointing, yes, and more so because Kitai is the son of Cypher Raige (Will Smith), commander general of the United Ranger Corps. He’s a legend because he’s perfected the art of ghosting — the complete absence of fear, which makes humans invisible to the Ursas, the original inhabitants of Nova Prime who happen to be terrifying monsters hell-bent on destroying humans. The only way they can see humans is when we secrete pheromones related to fear. Seriously. Since Cypher has no fear, he can kill the Ursas at will.
Kitai has daddy issues and Cypher has son issues, and they kind of blame each other for the death of Senshi (Zoe Kravitz), Kitai’s older sister. How do they get past their issues? Road trip! Or rather, space trip! Cypher takes Kitai on what will be his last mission before he retires. It’s a harmless training exercise — that is, if your idea of ‘harmless’ is getting bombarded by a meteor shower and crashing into the uninhabitable Earth, where every creature has evolved to kill humans.
Even with the high-concept setup and the star power, After Earth is surprisingly boring, and I’m going to have to blame Shyamalan for that. The pacing is awful. Other than the inherent talent of the Smith men, there’s nothing in this movie that is particularly impressive. It clocks in at about an hour and 40 minutes, but it feels three hours long. Once again, I went in optimistic but left disappointed. But, like I said, I’m a Mets fan.
Two-and-a-half out of five stars.
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