Of all the careers in
Hollywood, none was more unfortunate than that of M. Night Shyamalan…
Unfortunate, indeed. Believe
it or not, there was once a time when Shyamalan made good movies. The Sixth
Sense we all know is a terrific film, Unbreakable might be the most underrated
film of all time, Signs is a great, suspenseful Sci-Fi, and even The Village
has its own spectacular merits. But, after leaving Touchstone Pictures,
Shyamalan fell from grace hard. Starting with Lady in the Water, he made three
horrible films in a row, and has practically become a punchline in his own
industry. His latest film, After Earth, didn’t ease things. A starring vehicle
for Will Smith’s son Jaden, the studio went so far as to hide Shyamalan’s name
in advertising. However, the plan backfired. It seemed like the film had bigger
problems than just Shyamalan. So when all is
said and done, the movie is finished, and I get to thinking, I come to the
conclusion that… It’s not that bad.
Let me just clarify. I am not
saying this is a good movie, but it’s perhaps Shyamalan’s least bad film since
leaving Touchstone.
As the film begins, humanity
has been relocated to the planet Nova Prime after the destruction of Earth.
Though some really awkward exposition, we find out that, 1,000 years later,
aliens sent creatures called Ursas to attack us. These creatures locate prey by
detecting fear. To be invisible to these creatures is called “Ghosting”. This
is where the fearless Ranger Corps comes in, with the most revered of them
being General Cypher Raige (Will Smith), who, aside from having an unfortunate
name, also has unfortunate problems with his family. His son Kitai (Jaden
Smith) is trying hard to please his father, but doesn’t seem to be doing so. Cypher,
on his last mission before retirement, brings Kitai with him. However, when an
asteroid shower strands them on the now quarantined Earth, where everything has
evolved to kill, Kitai must venture out across the planet to retrieve a distress
beacon, and learn to survive by overcoming his fears.
Based on the opening, my hopes
were not high, and the script can pretty much be summed up that way. The
dialogue in the film is quite weak, though thankfully the moments of no
dialogue are much more bearable - a welcome change of pace after the onslaught of exposition that was The Last Airbender. The characterizations are shaky, the back
stories are half baked, and the film also has moments where it suffers from its
own stupid logic. For instance, take the Ursas, which detect humans based on
the pheromones they give off when they’re afraid. Honestly, there’s a great
idea in that. Creatures that have that ability would be a wonderful concept, as
an extra-sensory tool to seek out prey, which would honestly be quite scary. Only
problem, however, is that these creatures are blind, and can ONLY see humans
based on their fear pheromones. You see what’s wrong there, BECAUSE I CERTAINLY
DO! Why didn’t these aliens just go that extra mile and give the Ursas sight?!
This is Screenwriting 101, guys! Did you even think this through?! WHAT THE HE-
However, the problems don’t
stop there. The plot of Kitai trying to prove to his father that he is capable
of handling himself feels like an unintentional metaphor, like Jaden Smith is
trying to prove to his famous father that he can handle a movie of this scope,
and he unfortunately fails. I won’t be too harsh on him, I’m sure he’s trying
his best, but he isn’t the type to carry a film almost entirely on his own. It
doesn’t help matters that Will Smith appears to literally be acting in his sleep,
and when the film attempts to achieve sentimentality through their bond, it fares
with middling results. There’s also been controversy for alleged Scientology
subtext (seeing as how Will Smith is a scientologist), but I honestly don’t see
it. It might have been obvious, and I just missed it, but maybe the movie is so
bored of itself, even subtext doesn’t register.
However, I still think there
are some decent, even great qualities to this movie. Shyamalan, despite suffering
due to his own screenwriting vices, shows that he still has the potential as a
director. The film does contain some genuine tension, and with a lot of
tweaking to the writing, would make a solid survival film. There’s an
interesting concept with Earth’s fluctuating temperatures, and the planet completely
freezes over every night, except in specific hotspots, and it does lead to some
genuine urgency, and some of the action in the film is actually half decent. On
top of that, the film boasts some great technical qualities. The effects
(though sometimes tacky) are top notch stuff, and the film is nicely shot by
long time David Cronenberg collaborator Peter Suschitzky. And since this is a
Shyamalan film, it should also be noted that, for the fourth time in a row,
James Newton Howard’s orchestral score is unsurprisingly the movie’s best
quality.
I find myself split over After
Earth. If you find yourself despising this movie, I completely understand, but I’ll
just have to be considered among a minority opinion that doesn’t find the film
that bad. For purely selfish reasons, I want to give this film an extra half star boost, but I think the bad sadly outweighs the good. Regardless, I think After Earth proves
that Shyamalan still has talent. Now, if only he’d put that talent to better
use, and stop writing his own scripts…
** / *****
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