After Earth is a Sci Fi survival story of a boy named, "Kitai Raige" (Jaden Smith) who crash landed on a planet along with his father "Cypher Raige" (Will Smith), and have to survive various kinds of dangers that Earth greets the crash landers with.
I have to admit that the trailer when I saw it months ago, did get me excited. But fortunately I saw today that it was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and all my hopes were out. It was this low expectation that made the movie worth a watch.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Mr. Night, but he have a knack of making movies too boring sometimes. But fortunately his last movie "The Last Airbender" wasn't his last movie as a director. So when I say After Earth wasn't a total disappointment, I mean it.
Story wise movie doesn't give much to offer. Except the basic premise of survival and some flashbacks there isn't much to say. Visual effects were also just acceptable. Certainly not that what is expected of this age. The pace of movie was rather acceptable, and father son combo was the selling point.
But what I think lacked much in After Earth, was the fact that Earth didn't seem much dangerous to me. Mr. Night failed to get more dangers for the actor to fight against. And it felt like movie was cut short due to budget constraints at a later stage of production. This is why the time is took to built the pace seemed long, but the actual time devoted to Earth felt short and rushed.
Talking about performance of Jaden, real son of Will Smith, I have to say he needs much to learn. He is shown to be a boy who gets scared easily. But is later shown to gather courage to do what he sought out to. Its not like this is his fist cameo with Will Smith. He first worked with his father in "The Pursuit of Happiness". But unlike that film After Earth wasn't a Will Smith movie. After Earth can be said as Jaden's role as a first billed star cast.
One thing I liked about this movie was the Soundtrack. It felt immersive enough. After all the music was created by James Newton, the man behind soundtrack of Batman Begins, along with Hans Zimmer.
Overall, movie didn't feel something to drool over. But is worth a watch. Maybe when it comes out on DVD, or TV. But I liked it. It's not a lot of times when you get to see a father and son movie that are father and son in real life.
Review URL: vineetkumar.me/2013/06/after-earth/
