Review of After Earth (2013) by Badpope — 18 Jun 2013

My brother tells me that he actually liked After Earth. So reluctantly, I sat down and watched it. After seeing the movie here is my opinion. The critics are either wrong or they have an agenda. After Earth is a good movie. The performances by both Will and Jaden Smith are great. The movie has a strong and positive theme. The story flows from beginning to end, and I felt connected to the characters and their struggle throughout the film.

After Earth is the classic tale of the young warrior’s journey, both physically and spiritually. It has a very African feel to it, from the set designs, to their strange accents, to their names, to the creatures that young Kitai faces. Unlike much of the pointless trash that comes out of Hollywood these days, After Earth is a morality tale, akin to Star Wars. The hero needs to learn to overcome his faults in order to succeed. There’s also an emphasis on the roles of parents in the film.

Will Smith’s Cypher Raige is a compelling character. Many critics have complained about Will Smith’s performance in this film, calling it “wooden,” because he didn't run around yelling catchy lines like, “it’s raining black folks!” But I think this is one of his best performances in recent years.

In After Earth Will Smith has to play a man who is emotional, but can’t connect with others. He’s the flawed hero. His flaw makes him a powerful warrior but a distant father. He spends more time on the battlefield than with his family. Will smith did an excellent job of portraying this inner turmoil in a very nuanced performance. You constantly see the struggle in his eyes. He wants to connect with his son but just doesn't know how to. At the start of his son’s quest he addresses his son mainly by rank, cadet. But as the story progresses and Kitai encounters escalating danger, Cypher breaks down slightly and starts addressing Kitai as son. You can see the concern and fear of losing his son that he’s keeping in check.

Jaden Smith’s character Kitai Raige is the complete opposite of his father. His emotions are always raw and apparent. He can’t contain his emotions or even control them. You quickly understand why these two characters would have trouble connecting with each other. Criticisms of Jaden’s performance have been overly harsh. He’s not at his father’s level as an actor yet, but he did an admiral job of carrying the bulk of this film. You root for his success and you want him to overcome his fears.

The CGI in After Earth is good enough to get by but no where near the level of “Man of Steel.” I don’t mind mediocre CGI if the movie is good enough to compensate for it and After Earth is that kind of movie. The character development and the story were enough to make me forgive the sometimes unconvincing creatures. I will say this, while Man of Steel had incredible effects, I was still bored during the epic fight scenes. If you can’t invest in the characters then how can you feel anything when they are in peril.

In this age of overly complicated plots/storylines where the villains have to trick the good guy into doing something that they can easily do themselves. Then the villain gets captured on purpose as part of his plan. All leading up to a predictable Shyamalan-ish plot twist at the end. It’s refreshing to see a movie like After Earth where the characters get to shine and the events happening around them takes a back seat to their growth. Dark Knight Rises, Star Trek into darkness, and Iron Man 3 are all movies that misled the audience just to incorporate an “awww crap moment” at the end. DKR actually had two plot twists at the end. So it’s nice to see Shyamalan abandon this tired concept that he was dependent upon in his earlier films.

At the end of the day, After Earth is a good film that is more than worthy of your time. What it lacks in explosions and ridiculous set pieces, it more than makes up for in character development and story.