After Earth (2013)

Danger is real. Fear is a choice.

There is no doubt that Will Smith is one of the most well-known and marketable names in the world. I believe that the key to his success – aside from his charm, affability, good looks and effortless style – is the astounding range of versatility he possesses as an actor. There are very few names in the Hollywood who have such perfect comedic timing and delivery, whilst also having the ability to deliver powerful emotional performances that would challenge the best of them. You could watch the likes of Men in Black and be laughing riotously, then switch over the channel to The Pursuit of Happyness and spend the next couple of hours pretending to have something in your eye (and don’t even get me started on that scene in I Am Legend). Or, if you’d like a middle ground, then Bad Boys and Hancock are just a couple of options that will supply you with laughter, suspense and emotion all in one sitting. It’s clear that Smith’s performances have been refined since early leads in the likes of Independence Day, but this versatility is by no means a new development, as anybody who was a fan of ’90s sitcoms can attest. It’s no secret that Will Smith shot to acting fame after a long stretch on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and it’s also no secret that he was hysterically funny in that role as the cool teenager from the West Philadelphia hood who was uprooted to his wealthy uncle’s stuffy mansion in Los Angeles. However, the moments that truly stood out from the long-running show were the tear-jerking serious story-lines that cropped up occasionally. Prime examples being the episode where his estranged father returns briefly before departing again once his son has begun to bond with him, and the one where Will gets shot protecting his socially inept cousin Carlton from a mugger. Even as a child I remember being shocked by the actor’s ability to turn from cracking witty lines to suddenly delivering gripping and heartfelt emotional scenes, although I always coincidentally got dust in my eyes at these exact moments and had to turn and wipe the offending particles out. Will Smith was in The Fresh Prince for six years – a decent amount of time that clearly allowed him to develop his craft to the point where he could successfully hold a leading role in a film. Which, after a long and rambling aside, leads me to my key point: Jaden Smith is a weak and under-developed actor, floundering in a very lonely role that is much too big for him.

Acting is not a genetic trait. Some people will be more suited to the craft than others, but nobody is born a fantastic actor. Yet Jaden Smith seems to believe that he is the chosen one, that he may be some kind of prodigious singularity that can roll out of his racing car bed and make Daniel Day-Lewis weep at his own comparable ineptitude. Unfortunately, this is not the case. His father, Will Smith,  is charismatic and naturally charming, but if he had attempted to hold a lead role at 15 years old, then he would have been just as terrible as his son is in After Earth. He earned his talent through hard work and by gaining years’ worth of experience, whereas Jaden Smith has apparently honed his craft through a handful of episodes in a sub-par children’s TV series, two small supporting roles where his only requirement was to be a young child, and a lead role in The Karate Kid, which was aimed at a much younger audience than the superior original, and did not involve much genuine acting. He seems to have potential, but I think it’s a downright shame that he’s been fast-tracked into a confidence-crushing lead role in a flopped blockbuster such as After Earth, and I’m disappointed that his father didn’t have more sense to wait until he had more experience under his belt.

If you have somehow not already guessed from the tone thus far, I did not enjoy After Earth. Jaden Smith struggled with a role that saw him have the screen to himself for the majority of the film. This would be a daunting task for any actor, so needless to say his performance was weak. This was made worse by the addition of an accent that had been developed specifically for the futuristic setting of the film. It was an odd mixture of received pronunciation English, American and Australian, which sounded peculiar from most of the cast, and bounced all over the place for Jaden. Frankly, the only purpose it served was to distract from the awful dialogue. Some of the lines just seemed to be there to create dramatic soundclips, with a prime example being the tagline on the above poster. Other lines were just generally clunky and cheesy, such as, “he doesn’t need a commanding officer, he needs a father”. This, coupled with a messy and quite dull plot, combined to ensure Jaden didn’t really stand a chance in his first proper lead role. A key point of the plot involved the teen clambering up a hill to try and find a signal on his futuristic Nokia, while being pursued by a distant cousin of the Predator.

Whilst this film does continue M. Night Shyamalan’s recent run of unimpressive flops, it is not entirely devoid of quality. Will Smith has a limited role as a legendary soldier who can remain utterly fearless in the presence of giant murderous aliens, thus becoming invisible to their pheromone-detecting senses. It is a sturdy performance though, and he’s often the most exciting thing on screen, which you’d expect with a laughable action-hero name like Cypher Raige. The concept of Earth having evolved so that the flora and fauna is lethal to humans is an interesting one, and one that I would have liked to see more done with. The CGI scenery is impressive throughout, with the overgrown planet looking like a cross between Tarzan’s home and Pandora from Avatar, rather than the dilapidated concrete jungle that you might expect. However, the few evolved creatures that we do see are not as impressive, and tend to look outdated and artificial.

I would be intrigued to see what could have been done with a different director, a stronger lead and a rewritten script. But as it stands, After Earth is rather forgettable. I probably wouldn’t even recommend this as a mindless action flick, because despite there being a couple of exciting fight scenes, the general pacing is too slow to hold your interest. By all means see it for yourself and draw your own opinion, because I do know people who enjoyed it, but it seems to me that the film was simply a vehicle for Will Smith to play a supporting role to his own son, in a less than subtle attempt to boost the youngster to super-stardom. I wouldn’t write Jaden Smith off as a future star, but he needs to take some smaller roles and mature for a few years.

Rating: 

Certificate: 12A
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Jaden Smith, Will Smith
Running Time: 100 mins