After Earth Movies

[Prometeo Archuleta]

What it was, was a film that was attacked with the agenda of demonizing M. Night Shyamalan and Scientology. Will and Jaden Smith were simply caught in the crossfire. This movie, while not a masterpiece, was vilified entirely out of proportion to its effect on the landscape. At any other time, especially any time after 2014, it would have been recognized as a middle-of-the-road, Summer blockbuster.

After Earth can be seen through both a thematic and racial lens, as an example of Afrofuturism. Seeing this movie through a racial lens means that I need to put on my Black filmgoers glasses, and view the movie through the historical depictions of Black people in film, and whether or not the film has any messages in it that are about racial stereotyping, or agency, for example. This movie contains these things, not because it contains overt messages about race, but because it stars Black characters, and our mere presence in the source material is enough to make whatever we say and do a political issue.

In After Earth, which stars Will Smith and his son Jaden, a father and son reconcile their feelings about each other, as the son comes of age, while set against the backdrop of planetary survival. A thousand years after Earth has been abandoned, their ship crashes, and an alien predator the ship was carrying, called the Ursa, is set loose. Will and Jaden Smith are both Black men. The movie has no White characters in it. There are spaceships, alien/human cityscapes, and futuristic weaponry. This is as much Afrofuturism as Black Panther, and there is definitely some sort of dialogue occuring between the two films, though they were released several years apart, because they both involve sons dealing with the emotional legacies of powerful fathers.

Traditionally, Black people have been erased from futuristic narratives, and Afrofuturism is an attempt to center us, and our cultures, and priorities, in those narratives. Will Smith, in particular, has a long history of starring in Science fiction films like Men in Black, Enemy of the State, and I Am Legend, movies that tackle the subjects of alien immigration, dystopian state surveillance, and the apocalypse, all features of what is, traditionally, White futurism.

Will Smith is an especially beloved actor, so many critics would not attack him directly, but they can get away with tossing insults at Shyamalan, and questioning his motivations for making the movie. One of the major criticisms I encountered were White critics who said the movie was a thinly veiled attempt to recruit viewers to Scientology. Why? Because Will Smith and Shyamalan are Scientologists. This is suspicious to me since none of these critics have ever given one thought to Smith being a follower of Scientology in any of his other Scifi movies.

For example, witness some of the more interesting criticism that White male film critics have said about Captain Marvel being military propaganda, when the same could be said of nearly every other movie in the MCU, at which none of them lobbed this complaint. And one can witnesses the same dynamic play out in the Jussie Smollett case, where people tried to hide their homophobia by expressing deeply vehement criticism of him, and his circumstances.

Outside of my usual critical ranting, I also want to shine a light on why my opinions on a lot of movies can sometimes diverge from that of critics, what criteria I use, what lenses through which I can,and will, see a movie, and how I approach watching and critiquing movies and TV shows, vs how White film critics might view movies I happen to love, and how these two ways of seeing a movie are sometimes not compatible.

It has always been my rule since I was a teenager, really, to only rely on myself to determine whether or not a movie is any good, but after examining this for some time, I have come to the conclusion that I most definitely cannot rely on the opinions of White men to determine if a movie is bad or good for me, or indeed, anyone, other than themselves.

These were all critcil hits, but then something. He started making crappy movies that took the style people praised in his earlier films, and showed he was kind of a one trick pony. The Village, Lady In the Water, The Happpening, and The Last Airbender, (The former two will be reviewed some other time

The movie opens with a dead looking Jaden Smith narrating to us. He tells us that we trashed Earth up so much that we had to leave. Man, between WALL-E, Oblivion, Astro Boy, and now this, we REALLY suck at taking care of the planet.

One thing I will say is that the movie at least looks good. The scenery on Earth is pretty, and the effects are pretty solid. At least M Night has learned how to make movies LOOK good, even if his writing has taken a nose dive.

Anyway, the next day, Will finds about those broken capsules. This actually impacts the plot, as Will asks him to abort the mission as there is no way he can get the tail with only two breathing thingys.

With that, he kills the Ursa and fires the beacon. Then literally after, a rescue team shows up to get Will. Jesus, that was quick! Were they looking for him this whole time, or are they just that fast? Neither really makes sense when you think about it!

Anyway, a bit later the two reunite at some medical place and we see that Will is alive and well. The two hug it out in a display of emotion from both sides. Yes, Will clearly shows emotion and he kind of smiles!

After Earth is so bad that I think there's an argument for calling Child Protective Services on him for thinking this would somehow qualify as father/son bonding or furthering son Jaden's career. While he's at it, why not take Jaden out walking across the Sahara Desert in a tuxedo? It would be infinitely more enjoyable and at least the memory of it all would come to a merciful end.

The memory of After Earth is so painful that I still feel like my eyes are burning, their light and life flamed out by the ghastly sight of Jaden Smith floundering as an ill-prepared leading man and Will Smith stripped of his usual personality by a character so completely devoid personality that it makes his appearance in Seven Pounds seem downright hopeful and vibrant. After Earth is a dreadful experience and it's difficult to imagine that it won't end up comfortably in my Bottom 10 Films of 2013. While I've never quite been as solid on Will Smith as an actor as everyone else has been, truthfully I'm rather astounded at how completely nonsensical and painful to watch this film becomes as M. Night Shyamalan throws away yet another chance to rejuvenate his barely afloat directorial career.

After Earth takes place 1,000 years in the future after man has, of course, decimated earth and been forced to relocate to an exoplanet known as Nova Prime. Apparently, Nova Prime is somewhere along the Mid-Atlantic given the hideously silly accents utilized by Will and Jaden.

There's a lot of digressing in After Earth. There's a lot of repetition. There's a lot of really cheesy special effects, lame plot threads and scenes of Jaden Smith shrieking in fear, recoiling in whatever you recoil from and, ultimately, learning to overcome his fear in what amounts to a poorly produced lesson from A Course in Miracles - Nothing but love is real. Fear is imaginary.

Jaden's Kitai is forced to confront all of these these because he's accompanied his father on a routine mission that predictably goes awry. Already traumatized from a childhood event that we all relive way too many times, Kitai must find his inner strength when his father is injured and those evil things that are always around the corner can easily smell fear and aren't hesitant to exploit it.

There was a time when the release of an M. Night Shyamalan film was an "event." Heck, even if you scoffed at his predictable twists you at least looked forward to doing so. These days, M. Night has been on such a downward spiral that it's not even fun picking on the guy anymore. The only real debate here is whether or not After Earth is better or worse than The Last Airbender.

While Will Smith may have failed in providing his son with a meaningful cinematic experience, at least they have the pleasure of getting to join together in one of life's greatest lessons - Absolutely failure and how to respond when announced as a Razzie nominee.

If you are a crazy peacenik feminist like me, with a soft spot for movies that value love and non-violence and collaboration and an image of the future that is not dominated by Tom Cruise or Chris Pine or Robert Downy Junior knock-offs, go see After Earth. If you want explosions and death and booty shots, well, I am sure there are plenty of summer blockbusters in the pipeline that will deliver.

Well written review. I have to admit I was pretty excited to see the movie until the reviews came out, but my current disdain for useless critics lead me to read the comment sections which follow most critiques. I believe your point of view of the movie is likely accurate as Will tends to lean toward making movies with meaning(even the action ones), but the comments people are leaving seem to smell of politics to me. I find them highly personal, especially the critical ones that come from people that haven't seen the movie. I even read one that describe Will as being racists! LOL!
Anyway I'm going to see the movie for what you've described, a deeper meaning.

You are so illogical it's hilarious. The reason people think it's dumb they don't use guns is because it doesn't make any sense not to. Why would they not don protective suits to mask their scents (as in the last part of the movie, and shoot the aliens from a safe distance? The reason people thought the eagle saving Katai was dumb is because it was a completely random tangent to the story with no real significance (also, why did the eagle drag him across the ground and cover him with it's body instead of flying him to one of the geothermal warm spots so they could both survive?)

Oh, one more thing I forgot-- you praised the movie for not incorporating guns cause "choosing not to use guns would be CRAAAZZY." Haha yes actually in that situation it literally would be! The whole idea was hilarious, because they were still going into battle and killing things with their "cutlasses". It's still war, still violent and terrible, but just a much more idiotic approach to things because it would cause significantly more loss of life than necessary, much more than if they just shot the aliens instead of running at them with "cutlasses." Anyway, I thought that rare piece of completely illogical and idiotic gun-hating dogma you wrote was quite funny.

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