Film & TV

Review: After Earth

 

after-earthM. Night Shyamalan seems to have slowly become box office poison. That he continues making films is a testament to the goodwill his early work such as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable generated. Unfortunately After Earth won’t do him any favours with its rambling plot further diminishing his once golden allure.

A thousand years after a cataclysm ruined Earth, the planet Nova Prime is humanity’s new home. One of its revered soldiers is General Cypher (Will Smith) who embarks on a journey with his estranged son Kitai (Jaden Smith). When their ship crash-lands on Earth’s ravaged plains, an injured Cypher sends Kitai to recover their rescue beacon. Aiming to prove his worth to his father, Kitai sets out on a mission full of unknown peril.

In spite of its dazzling CGI vistas and interesting theme of man versus nature, After Earth isn’t very memorable. The biggest drawback is the performances. Despite being true-life father and son Smiths senior and junior show little chemistry. It’s difficult believing in their relationship as their character’s disinterest in each other smothers any emotional investment. Their roles make demands that their limited range can’t give with their acting mediocre at best.

Their misguided renditions are magnified by the confused story. Plot holes abound with many sequences making little sense. These make After Earth difficult to follow although the grand visions of a rediscovered Earth provide some distractions. Shyamalan doesn’t seem interested in providing something unique with the over-used ‘son wanting to please the father’ plot device clumsily handled.

Better actors and a more focussed script may have made After Earth engaging. His latest effort provides further evidence of Shyamalan’s fading talents with his glory days seemingly as distant as the relationship of ‘After Earth’s protagonists.

Reviewed by Patrick Moore

Rating out of 10: 3

 

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