Movie review: After Earth

After Earth
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith
Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. 2013

The movies of M. Night Shyamalan are known for wild plot twists, but After Earth is a more straightforward story.

In the future human rage has left Earth after a catastrophe and aliens are sending Ursa-beasts to destroy humanity. The Ursas smell fear so the only way to survive is a fear control techinique called ghosting.

General Cypher (Will Smith) and his son Kitai (Jaden Smith) crash-land their spaceship into a hostile planet, and Cypher breaks his leg. So Kitai must go and search the distress signal beacon.  Jaden Smith is good in his role as a terrified young space cadet. Will smith is very serious in this role as tough officer, so no buddy comedy this time.

Somehow the movie reminds me of some folk stories about a young hero who must win difficult trials and kill the beast as a rite of passage. Also there are no ray guns this time but the weapon used by Kitai is a shapeshifting spear/knife. One theme of the movie is the conquering of ones worst fears. The critics and audiences did not like the movie. I liked it and think it deserves to be seen.

Recommended for fans of emotional and metaphoric type of sci-fi.

Rating: Good