After Earth
1000 years after Earth’s destruction and the inhabitants who survived were evacuated to Nova Prime, Colonel Cypher Raige (Will Smith) and his team, including son Kitai (Jaden Smith), crash land on Earth’s toxic surface.
Cypher is badly injured in the crash and Kitai must travel a long distance in dangerous territory to reach and engage a distress beacon.
Say what you will about the spoiled, rich kids of Hollywood stars—this one can act.
In fact, it was really a two-person show, and the second time this father and son have played father and son. The first being the very successful The Pursuit of Happyness, when Jaden was eight years old. He’s now 15 and a seasoned actor. Dad, Will Smith coached him personally for this performance.
Will Smith also personally hired M. Night Shyamalan to direct the film, making it the first time in 20 years that Shyamalan has accepted a project based on someone else’s screenplay.
This is also the first feature film to use the Sony F65 digital camera and it’s better than most 3D showings in its clarity and scope.
Best quote (and maybe one to live by): “Fear is not real. It is a product of thoughts you create. Now, don’t misunderstand me, danger is very real, but fear is a choice”
I love that!
I also love futuristic sci-fi, so this one was right up my alley, and very well done. So it surprised me that After Earth narrowly missed being this weekend’s “top banana” at the box office, which saw Now You See Me take in the most revenue, beating After Earth by $200,000 (not much by movie standards, but enough to place it first).
Both are really good films, with Now You See Me, getting more publicity and more star cast members, so you have a choice of a couple of good, entertaining shows to which you can take the whole family
I give four reels for After Earth. Now we can wait with baited breath for Brad Pitt’s World War Z—when zombies take over. (Haven’t Brad and Angie already taken over? Oh, sorry that was just mean!)
