After Earth is a return to form for director M. Night Shyamalan, though not quite a triumphant one. His first three features were all great and I declared the man a genius after finding so much to love in The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. But as we all know, the mighty M. Night has fallen to untold lows. I didn’t even see The Last Airbender, but have yet to meet or talk to a single person who liked the film. No exaggeration there.
What I find fascinating about the marketing for After Earth is that Shyamalan’s name is really nowhere to be found on it. I’ve broken the news to several well-informed movie geeks that this is, in fact, an M. Night joint. It seemed to be the first they’d ever heard this. And that is very telling as to where the M. Night brand currently resides. Where once Shyamalan’s name appeared before the title… now studios are doing everything they can to downplay his attachment.
For my part, I entered the theater with a healthy dose of optimism, which is weird because… Lady In The Water. Why did I have even an iota of optimism? My primary source of excitement was that the screenplay was written by Gary Whitta (The Book Of Eli, The Walking Dead Video Game.) I seem to be one of the only major defenders of Eli, and will have that conversation with you another time. But between being excited about the actual credited writer, AND being excited that anybody BUT M. Night had written the script, I let my expectations tip towards optimism. It was a good move for Shyamalan to turn the writing duties over to someone else.
That said, I’m not really sure he had a choice in the matter. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that After Earth is a case of the star calling pretty much all of the shots. When you look at the list of producers on After Earth, almost everyone is a Pinkett or a Smith. And Will Smith is even given a “story by” credit. So, my best guess (and it is a total guess) is that Smith cooked up the story as a starring vehicle for Jaden and himself, pitched it to Sony/Columbia, and they greenlit the project with Smith Sr. acting as more or less the “show runner.” I assume that M. Night had to make his case to Will Smith for this gig, and not vice versa. The same can probably be said for my man Gary Whitta, who clearly wrote a screenplay around Will and Jaden Smith first and foremost.
So, just how M. Night is this M. Night movie? I don’t see a lot of the director’s former glory on display here as an original story teller. But I’m pleased to say that After Earth, after a fairly clunky and exposition-heavy opening, tells a pretty stripped down and elemental story of a young man growing up in the shadow of his father and attempting to quell the fears inherent in coming of age.
Jaden Smith actually does a convincing job as a tween action hero whose father is the supreme badass of the universe (as I mentioned, Smith Sr. came up with the story himself) and who must prove his mettle in a harsh environment if he wants to save both himself and his father after they crash land on an overgrown and abandoned Earth.
There is a whole complex set up to After Earth which involves humanity abandoning a pollution-ridden Earth and moving to a new galaxy in which we are at war with an alien species that cannot see, but senses our “fear pheromones.” Will Smith’s improbably monikered “Cypher Raige” rose to military prominence by perfecting a technique called “ghosting” in which a soldier suppresses his fear and becomes all but invisible to the aliens (inexplicably known as Ursa.) As I mentioned, the way we are introduced to all of this information in the first few minutes of the film is clunky; delivered in voice-over by Jaden Smith’s Kitai. Smith’s pubescent voice works for his character but not as introductory voice-over.
But to be honest, one of the best aspects of After Earth is just how stripped down and straightforward it all is after swallowing the initial set up. There is a crash landing. There is a well-established father-son conflict. And as Kitai must journey to find a beacon and activate it, we can all be certain that conflicts will boil over, and that Kitai will have to rise to the occasion in order to come out from under the shadow of his father. And while we’re at it, we’ll explore fear as a theme and let a few action set pieces highlight further how important it is to put our fears in check and break out of our bubbles.
Don’t go in expecting a Shayamalan-ian twist or over-complicated and bloated narrative. That isn’t After Earth. And, in my opinion, this doesn’t feel like some kind of mini-prequel to a larger story. It could be, but I feel that it works as a nice, streamlined, stand-alone action/adventure for teens.
Which brings me to another point. Daggonit, this is an original screenplay! And during the Summer, no less! I’m sure everyone involved would love to see this do gangbusters at the box office and spawn sequels. But this isn’t a reboot or a sequel or an adaptation of a young adult fiction novel. This is an honest to goodness sci-fi adventure written directly for the screen! There was a time when this wasn’t necessarily a reason to praise a film, but now is not that time. I feel it is important to single out that After Earth, while inspired by (and perhaps derivative of) other, better films… is an original property.
There’s a bunch of cool stuff that I just want to rapid fire list off, which worked to get me into the story. I dug the future aesthetic of the space ships and architecture in the film. The ship felt very organic, with textures like snake skin and support beams like ribcages. Even our distant future home has a flowing and almost African feel to it. I also assumed that the “weird” accents that both Smiths were implementing here were a nod to their African (and not African-American) heritage, and I love the idea of African action heroes. But I could be reading into that too much. Beyond the design, there are also some really fun action set pieces which are, again, basic in concept, and well-executed visually. The pacing and escalation of tension were all on point for me as well.
There are also a bunch of issues I had, as well. I’ll dive into those more when I get into spoilers in a moment. But a couple of problems have to do with the cheese factor. There are quite a few moments of heightened drama and swelling orchestral music that don’t really ring true because they just feel so scripted. And one could be forgiven for picking up a bit of an Avatar flavor to the setting. And, since it is very clear from the title and ad campaign that the story takes place on Earth… I’m going to call out the science of After Earth a little bit. Sure, I understand that planet has been ravaged by pollution and has only had 1000 years to heal. But there are some bizarre weather patterns that are integral to the story that just seem… totally impractical and non-reality based?
So yes, After Earth is flawed, and oft-riddled with “fromage”. But I didn’t have to try to convince myself to enjoy it. I genuinely had fun with the film. I’m pulling for The Smiths here, even though they are about the farthest thing from Hollywood underdogs and more than a little nepotism seems to be on display here. And I’m even pulling for M. Night. I’d love to see him back at the top of his game some day. And if turning the reins over to Will Smith and Gary Whitta was what he needed to simply make a solid movie again, then good on him.
After Earth may not be your thing. You may be totally done with M. Night, and no one would blame you. But there is just no way that After Earth is anywhere near the tragically awful levels of Lady In The Water or The Happening. So, here’s to hoping that the target demographic of teenagers really latch on to this film and that it paves the way for M. Night’s triumphant return and Jaden Smith’s eventual rise to Hollywood A-list royalty.
SPOILERS (Click To Open)
The trailers make it quite clear that there is a big spaceship crash, and that Will and Jaden end up on Earth. So that’s all fine. But remember that shot from the trailer where Will Smith is violently sucked out of frame mid-crash? Well, we’re never provided any explanation as to why this did not KILL ole Cypher Raige as it did EVERY SINGLE OTHER PERSON it happened to. When Kitai comes to after the crash, he just kind of happens upon his Dad. Why are these two the only men who survived beyond the fact that they are our protagonists? No reason. And I can swallow that, but it could have still gone down that way and actually have made some sense, too. But it doesn’t. Big Willy just dies hard, I guess.
And the biggest spoiler of all is that Cypher Raige, ailing throughout the film from a severely broken leg and a severed artery, somehow manages NOT to die at the end. As we were approaching the close of the film, I found myself actively hoping that Raige Sr. would die, not because I didn’t like him or wished ill on him, but because the narrative would have been objectively stronger had he passed away. Kitai learns all he can on this adventure, reconciles with his Dad and, after completing his mission and besting his fear… he is a man now. On every level, it would have been more powerful and ballsy and thematically sound for Cypher to die of his injuries, having given every last ounce of his strength to keeping his remaining child alive and safe. But rather than kill off Cypher, they instead write in a corny moment for Will to salute Jaden. Big Willy actually sells the moment fairly well, but it is a huge bummer that the filmmakers didn’t have the follow through to actually kill off one of their main characters.
There’s other stuff I could nitpick, but this has gone on long enough. I don’t want to expend a whole lot of energy picking apart a film that, for the most part, I bought into and enjoyed. This won’t be one of my favorite films of the Summer, but there was enough genuine thematic and character work built into a slick enough package that I ended up enjoying it rather effortlessly.
And I’m Out.