After Earth

And after earth, there was a story by a father who wanted to boost his son's career. And it possibly worked. 

After Earth

Will Smith is one of my favourite actors. The only film he's been in that hasn't been awesome was 'I Am Legend', and that's not because he was poor in it. His performance was great, but the book was just miles better. 

Kilometres. I believe it is 100 kilometres that Kitai Raige, Jaden's character, has to travel to recover the beacon thingy-majiggy; the technical gubbins that the father and son combo have to use to call for help on this planet which has evolved to kill our species. 

There are cute conversations that happen throughout the film that highlight the people are no longer of this planet, such as when Kitai's sister (or mother, I got confused) holds up a physical copy of Moby Dick and exclaims that she had been able to take it out of the museum / library. I guess there are no books in the future / 'After Earth' period. 

The start of the film gives us a back story into the characters of Kitai and dad Cypher that leads up to their crash landing, but the whole aim of this film is to give more screen-time to the young Smith. 

That's not a terrible thing though; story by Will Smith and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the kid has a big break and a lot of pressure to show he is his father's son, or rather that he's a competent actor despite the large shoes he has to fill. 

Jaden has a lot of time to show off that he can do these kind of roles, but it means that there isn't much screen time for any nobodies (to put it bluntly), or even Will Smith himself. The trailers for this film make it seem like there will be interaction between the two throughout the film, but the only interaction is done via a high-tech walkie talkie. 

The special effects are out of this world (well it's our world... but it's different now... so... they're good). There are chimps / apes / baboons, and giant eagles which seem to be all-CGI, and also creations such as the Ursa Monster (Although I kept saying Ursa Major in my head), which is quite an imaginative and bland creature at the same time. 

There are surprising moments in the film portrayed through memories and hallucinations from lack of sleep from both the father's and son's perspectives. They're welcome additions to break up the running and action scenes and it's a shame they're not looked into more in depth. There could have been a whole other layer to the film if there was more focus on the activities off earth. 

So it's a nice idea for a film, and good sentiments behind why Will Smith has a story focusing on a young boy's journey to save his dad's, and his own, life. There are some heartfelt moments where we see how and why their relationship has been affected, and again it's these scenes that I think would have benefited from having more exploration.

As a new film, it's not one I'd say is a must see, but it's light-hearted and is jumpy in a few places so by all means isn't terrible. 

Well call me Ismail. Those humans didn't kill all the whales!

:-)

Elky