After Earth by M Night Shyamalan.

So let's talk about this bloke who brought us Sixth Sense and The Village. One very good. One very bad. M Night S (who will hereby be referred to as MNS) has made more shit than good movies but when he does make a good movie, he hits the jackpot. Never have I watched a movie of his and been "meh?" ... it's either "hmm, I like this" or "Fuck you M night give me my damn bandwidth and 120 minutes of my life back!". But last night at the $2.00 movie theater I experienced my first "meh" with one of his movies.

I give After Earth a Solid 6/10 mainly because Will Smith is in it and he does a job that only Will Smith can. Jayden Smith did do an excellent job at his role. I want to hate him, but I have to give his performance credit. Many people however down right hated After Earth. I just think unlike most of MNS' movies, it wasn't horrible.

Basically, the whole movie is a tedious jungle race with little (or rather unsatisfactory IMO) back story. Jayden's character does develop through out his performance and so does' Will's fulfilling the father/son dynamic. I liked how he grew through the experience. But the movie leaves more to be wanted.

If you've seen the movie, tell me what you think. If you haven't, eh, just wait for it on netflix.

Also, tell me what you think about our writer/director MNS and his recent big time blockbuster flops.

 

The Happening Sucked.

 

Almost liked the one about the aliens with Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix.

 

So precise and succinct. These comments channel Hemmingway and Dostoyevsky in their raw analysis of the subject at hand. Do you guys moonlight as journalists for Rotten tomatoes on the sly?

/sarcasm

Originally I had intended for some sort of discussion on movies directed by MNS in addition to After Earth but I guess bland catcalls of "YOU SUCK" will have to do.

/Also sarcasm.

 

No, but I am paid for my writing.

 

I have not seen it. This film and that Oblivion film starring Tom Cruise are on my "someday when they hit Netflix or maybe the redbox" list just for the visuals. I suspect that both of the plots fail horribly and/or follow too many clichés, but I could be wrong and even if they do the "free" netflix route would be worth it.
If a film is just plain bad it gets turned off anyway. Last time I did that was the first live action GI Joe film on netflix that lasted five minutes before both my wife and I said "hell no, that is enough".

 

FWIW, I thoroughly enjoyed Oblivion--as I stated before, the storyline's somewhat predictable, but the visuals (including Olga Kurylenko) were worth the big screen.

Back to the OP: I did not watch 'After Earth' because it simply did not appeal to me. Another post-apocalyptic film among too many this year.

Furthermore, MNS's horrid direction of 'The Happening' and the whole father, trying to bolster his son's career schtick didn't work for me. As far as I can tell, Jaden Smith seems to lack his father's charisma.

 

I think it's interesting to note that After Earth (haven't seen it) was the first MNS film since 6th Sense that didn't come to market with An M. Night Shyamalan Film draped over the title.

You almost could have gone through the whole promotional phase without knowing he was the director.

I am not convinced that this has anything to do with Will Smith as many of his other films had equally big names.

 

I read somewhere he was the director but had completely forgotten that until I saw this thread.
I just checked IMDb and they list 11 productions counting television and films; I have only seen the Sixth Sense and The Last Airbender, The Airbender film was decent considering the source and certainly nailed the visuals which is particularly important for that one.

What did stand out to me on this After Earth film was the father and son pairing. That made me much less inclined to watch it more than anything else.