After Earth (2013)
After Earth, based on a story by Will Smith, has been dismissed by critics as a shameless vehicle to push his son, Jaden, further in the spotlight. The fact that M. Night Shyamalan is at the helm does not help matters. His last few features have not only garnered dismissive reviews, but outright contempt. All of his films are built around a heightened emotional state that often eschews logic, which has been too great for some to traverse. It's his modus-operandi, in fact, Signs and Lady in the Water are explicitly about forgoing rational thought in favor of blind-faith. His latest film is no different.
After Earth is a simple coming of age allegory with its heart in the right place. 1,000 years after Earth has been deemed uninhabitable, mankind now resides on the planet of Nova Prime. The world is very thinly sketched, architectural designs and fashions are workable at best and by no means distract. Cypher Raige (Will Smith) holds a General's ranking in the Ranger Corps and plans on taking his son, Kitai, Jaden Smith as a characteristically reckless pubescent boy, on a voyage before he retires. The mission to transport an Ursa monster presents both a situation to thrust Kitai into maturity and bonding exercise. At the hangar, wife Faia Raige wishes them well, "go make memories together."
While aboard the spacecraft, whose curved interiors and white osseous columns resemble the inside of a ribcage, they are met by an asteroid shower which forces them to crash land on an Earth populated by animals more highly evolved than we last encountered. While in direct communication, via an armband, with his father, whose left femur suffered a compound fracture, Kitai must venture through 100 kilometers of foreign terrain to reach the tail end of the ship. A beacon stored in one of the compartments will alert other rangers of their situation. Peter Suschitzki's lensing carries the story from point to point, although, a reliance on tight shots left this viewer geographically disoriented as Kitai fends off the descendants of baboons, lions, eagles, snakes and eventually an uncaged Ursa. In a series of fortunate events like Byron Haskin's 1964 B-feature, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Kitai's path to survival is filled with contrived solutions.
Jaden Smith acquits himself fair enough in the role, though he is no where near as winning as he was in 2010's Karate Kid remake. Clearly in the throws of puberty, his vocal range is very limited and his movements can be quite stiff, but he does a fair job of emoting the simple emotions at the fore: fear, apprehension, heedlessness. Will Smith, who has been trying to expand his portfolio since the mid-2000's, underplays Cypher. His dialogue is unambiguous and often delivered in monosyllabic increments. He is a stern disciplinarian and survival expert that will weigh each option thoroughly before making a decision.
A central mythological concept in the story is that of "ghosting." Resembling the force in Star Wars, one can become invisible to enemies when free of fear. The concept is devoid of physical stakes, as we know Kitai will eventually achieve ghosting as soon as he has trekked enough, but when viewed under the lens of a fable it can be a quite endearing one. This is after all a film aimed at pre-teen boys, and I do not see anything egregious about employing a such an earnest narrative element. There is much to sneer at If you enter the theater refusing to engage with it as an allegory.
An area where the film feels misguided are Kitai's flashbacks of his sister's murder at the hands of an Ursa and Cypher's recollections of video conversations he had with his wife and family years before. They unfavorably recall the much more effective flashbacks in Signs dealing with Reverend Graham Hess' wife's death , but like much of the rest of the film, they are well intentioned.
Though serving as a hired gun, this is M. Night Shyamalan's best feature since The Village. The impersonal computer generated excess and total disregard for plot, character development and dialogue seen in The Last Airbender has been toned down significantly. The results are more sparse and undercooked than thoughtful, but it is nevertheless a step in the right direction for the wayward director even as it slips into the recesses of my mind.
½
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I'd still argue that AE is better than most of his lesser works.
Even when they were all being chased by the wind. 
I thought Jaden had just a couple of scenes in AE that could be considered irritating, but he's not a total brat or anything. Not like The Karate Kid remake or The Day the Earth Stood Still remake or anything.
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