140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
I don’t understand why this movie got lambasted with such bad reviews. It was good, with an original if simple story and some unique sci-fi.
Spoiler-free Movie Review of After Earth:
Some movies get a reputation pretty early on in the life cycle. Our critical nature as people and as a culture, coupled with the “me first” nature of the internet has definitely led to a tendency to jump all over a picture right away in order to be able to be the first snark on the scene. That’s fine, I guess, but it does grind up a lot of good stuff in the grist mill.
Occasionally this works to the project’s benefit with individual viewers – when your expectations have been significantly lowered, you are more easily impressed. But this doesn’t work on a large scale – the word has already gone out and perception is now reality when it convinces people not to give a picture a chance.
So it is with After Earth. I thought the trailers looked fantastic when they premiered. To my eyes, it looked like a good sci-fi picture, another entry in the series of modern films that envision a darker future for humans, due to our treatment of the environment. If you think you’ve seen a lot of these movies now, just wait – we’re only going to see more stories set in this environment. Why? For the same reason modern movies incorporate the internet – it’s our new reality.
After unsuccessfully convincing my daughter to go see it with me, I missed the chance at After Earth in theaters. I have to admit that all of the negative press was a factor in not trying harder to get out to see it; I’m as guilty as the next person at following the hype. The loss was mine – and yours – because it is a good picture.
After Earth, as the title implies, takes place in a future where we’ve had to abandon the planet after trashing the place and we settled on a new planet, Nova Prime. Unfortunately, there was some competition for the place (indigenous or other settlers is unclear and one of the early signs of sloppiness) and the “aliens” set loose creatures called Ursas, who are completely blind, sensing the pheromones humans give off when scared in order to hunt. (Not a bad idea, although again, I’d like to have heard more about this. Were they specifically bred for hunting humans? Do they sense fear in other creatures?)
Will Smith plays Cypher Raige (really), part of the United Ranger Corps who helped everyone evacuate Earth and are now tasked with saving the human race from extinction at the hands of the Ursas. He is able to completely suppress all fear and emotion, rendering himself invisible to the Ursas – “ghosting”. By teaching other Rangers, they turn the tables and are able to survive on Nova Prime. (Yet again, this exposition happens in a blur and you don’t really understand the current situation – have they succeeded? Are they still in danger? Where are the aliens that loosed the Ursas – do they do any of their own fighting?)
Meanwhile, between being physically distant off fighting and emotionally distant from ghosting, Cypher is a hero to all and a stranger to his family, particularly his son Kitai (Jaden Smith), whom Cypher unfairly blames for an Ursa killing his daughter Senshi (Zoë Kravitz). Kitai is training to become a Ranger but has yet to conquer his fears in the field and is denied advancement. Cypher takes his son along on the last trip before retirement, where of course things go pear-shaped. The ship crashes on Earth, now a dangerous and inhospitable place that Kitai must traverse on his own after his father is seriously wounded. The two survivors must trust in each other in order to get off the planet.
That’s a really good story. Will Smith came up with it based on a reality show with more or less the same father-son survival story and turned it into pretty solid sci-fi – once Gary Whitta and Shyamalan cleaned it up and wrote the screenplay. (It was further polished by Stephen Gaghan & Mark Boal.)
It’s really hard to do good science fiction and not have it be totally derivative or fundamentally unsound, and this avoids both, in my opinion. As I said, it’s not 100% fleshed out and while some audiences may have been itchy with a longer runtime, I would have enjoyed more depth. You definitely get the sense that some serious editing took place. As my wife pointed out, they didn’t do enough with the environment – “Earth was just an obstacle course”. I’m actually interested in reading some of the companion books they put out since I imagine there’s a lot more that was conceptualized than appeared in the film. This is always the case, particularly with sci-fi films, but since the movie was only 100 minutes, I’d guess there’s even more background than usual.
I found the movie entertaining and well-conceived. The sci-fi elements that you need to have (good tech, visuals, unique ideas, exotic creatures, realistic assumptions) are all there. A number of the devices and technologies are totally new to me and welcome – I love the suits, the cutlass, and the breathing capsules – all unique.
The film looks good – the production design is fairly standard, nothing terribly original but it’s not hugely derivative. The Ursas are very menacing, even if we don’t get enough time with them, and the ships are very cool. The effects are about what I expect them to be on a big 2013 movie. I thought they were mostly very good, some weak, some exemplary.
The acting seems to be another one of those divisive issues. I didn’t find anyone particularly impressive, but neither did I think it was poor. Both Smiths adopt this weird accent that I don’t totally get but I appreciate them trying to do something new. The best thing about the acting is that it is certainly the first film in which Will Smith doesn’t try at all to be charming and witty. He had an idea for a character and went with it. Kitai is probably over-whiny for most people, but I think that’s the point. I appreciate the father/son dynamic of the story as written and think the Smiths did an adequate job of expressing it. Maybe not the highest praise, but it’s certainly not criticism.
While I do a bit of research when writing these reviews, I generally try to avoid looking at what anyone else had to say about a movie, lest it inform my opinion, but I was terribly curious with this one. What was it about this movie that everyone hated so much?
Turns out that the movie was not so universally reviled as I thought. That impression was arrived at by how viciously it was treated by some. From some reviews you’d think that this was Plan 9 from Outer Space without a sense of humor. Some compare it to Battlefield Earth. (Note: I guess some people claim there are a lot of Scientology parallels in this movie. I don’t have any idea about that. The movie follows the Joseph Campbell model more than anything.) But it seems pretty divisive. For every review that calls the effects awful, another one calls them amazing. Some call it unoriginal, others call it unique. It’s really an oddly mixed bag. In my own house, I turned to my wife afterwards and said, “I don’t know what everyone was complaining about. I thought that was really good.” and was greeted with deafening silence and then something like “It wasn’t atrocious…”.
I find it interesting that while the movie bombed in the States, it was very successful overseas. Perhaps the press responded differently or maybe people simply aren’t as swayed by negative reviews?
After Earth was supposedly going to kick off a series of films, which is never going to happen based on its box office – at least in the US. Probably for the best, as while I like the setting, I’m unsure how you’d continue the story. The movie is unlikely to gain an audience at home that it missed in the theaters, but maybe it will gain some traction when it hits cable, which it is certain to do. I really did enjoy the movie – not in the “I can’t wait to watch that again” way, but I appreciated it and am glad I took the time to watch it. I recommend you do so as well, and make up your own mind.
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Fail
The Representation Test Score: D (3 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Jaden Smith Kitai Raige, David Denman Private McQuarrie, Will Smith Cypher Raige, Sophie Okonedo Faia Raige |
| Rating | PG-13 |
| Release Date | Fri 31 May 2013 UTC |
| Director | M. Night Shyamalan |
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi |
| Plot | A crash landing leaves Kitai Raige and his father Cypher stranded on Earth, a millennium after events forced humanity’s escape. With Cypher injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 100 |
| Tagline | Danger is real. Fear is a choice. |
| Writers | Gary Whitta (screenplay) and, M. Night Shyamalan (screenplay) … |
| Year | 2013 |
