After Earth is a post apocalyptic scifi movie and Will Smith's recent installment in his ever expanding quest to make his son a movie star. A thousand plus years in the future the human race has left earth and populated a new planet carving out a place for itself only to be attacked by invading aliens. The warriors who fought and won the war are called Rangers who were lead by General Cypher Raige(Will Smith). The movie opens with Kitai Raige(Jaden Smith) in training to be a Ranger. Daddy Raige takes Little Raige on a routine training mission but they run into an asteroid shower and crash land on Earth. Our world has been taken back by the flora and fauna which have evolved to kill humans. Daddy Raige and Little Raige are the only ones left alive in the crash and Daddy's legs are broken so Little Raigey has to go out into the dangerous world that was once ours to retrieve a homing beacon in order to be rescued.
The premise of this world is intriguing, it's a good scifi concept movie. The CGI is great and a lot of work was put into the conception of the future Earth and this possible future civilization. The story moves and the action is fun. The biggest problem and the only problem really with
After Earth is its lead: Jaden Smith. Jaden looks 11 years old, he can't act, he can't emote, he doesn't look natural in any situation, everything is forced and contrived. When he's running or jumping or swimming he's believable(other than his small frame which always seems to be years behind his actual age and the ages he's cast as) but when he opens his mouth his performance and the movie crumble. Will Smith does what he can to inject some of the older Smith gravitas but most of his performance in the movie is audio.
An entertaining yet underwhelming summer scifi flick not worth paying money to see.
Rent It.
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