Review of After Earth (2013) by Ana B — 06 Oct 2014

In a distant future humankind has moved to a far away planet where they have to share habitat with the "ursas", an alien race, a sort of giant mix between an ant and a spider.

Celebrity Major Raige, a well loved man well known for his extraordinary bravery, takes his teenage son Kitai on a special mission to transport one of the ursas but their spaceship is badly damaged and they have no choice but to land on Earth. Raige is injured and Kitai must find his way to where part of the ship has fallen, to retrieve the beacon to send the distress signal. This inexperienced man will have to walk 100 km and face terrible dangers on Earth: its hostile climate and fauna and the possibility that the ursa has survived the crash landing.

Half coming of age movie, half sci-fi, this movie is entertaining but the director M. Night Shyamalan fails to deliver originality and at some point the film becomes way too predictable. A twist at the pure style of "The Planet of the Apes" was expected but didn't show up and it badly needed it to leaven up the average script. Jaden Smith does his best at portraying this damaged young man trying to face his worst fears; his real and fictitious father Will Smith spends the whole movie calmly talking while sitting in a chair with a wooden face, you will say the script requested it but it is way too much.