Review of After Earth (2013) by Cody F — 05 Mar 2014

What do you get when you mix the king of the blockbuster with one of the worst Hollywood directors in this era of movies? A sci-fi thriller becoming a disaster to most, but okay for a few others like me! Obviously, the reason why critics hated this movie and it flopped at the box-office because it was a film directed by M.

Night Shyamalan. But, it wasn't his idea to make the movie, it was an original story by Will Smith. I mean, come on, it what his passion project! Seriously guys, show some fucking respect for once! Well, at least Buzz Aldrin liked it! The only other obstacle I had in this movie other than Shyamalan when I first watched the trailers is one of Will's bratty kids, Jaden, having the lead and taking all the action away from his father.

I'll admit that Jaden is a shitty actor, but the only good parts of his acting chops in this movie were saying some random funny lines and the "I'M NOT A COWARD!" scene. Let's also not forget that his old man had said some of the most wisest and symbolic quotes in the film that can also be heard in the trailers and TV spots, which were incredibly encouraging.

This movie is also pretty emotional, which made me wonder why there was so much hate. The most dramatic scenes that will hit you the most are the scenes showing Senshi's death. I agree with people that there are boring moments in this film, but another problem I had was part of the beginning.

The man who refuses to advance Katai into becoming a Ranger by telling him how he "confuses courage with recklessness" and the rock-climbing scene were edited out from the movie and were just used for the second trailer.

However....the visual effects and the post-apocalyptic Earth settings are still breathtaking, the alien creatures are monstrous, the suspense is crazy, part of the score sounds kinda epic, and the disturbing scenes are insane.

Though, the CGI animals are half-good and half-bad because you can actually tell when an animal species is realistic (ex. the baboons) and when an animal species is animated (ex. the warthogs). All that is why I believe that AFTER EARTH is a little better 2013 post-apocalyptic Earth movie than Tom Cruise's OBLIVION, especially since that this movie is much less of a thinker than said movie! It's not a great movie, but it's definitely a worth-seeing piece of summer eye candy!!!!