![]() Cypher manages to turn it into a longer and more solipsistic speech, but the essence remains. Roosevelt 80 years ago namely, that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Special effects and giant predators aside, After Earth, with its fear-smelling Ursa, seems to be trying to deliver a message that was handled much better by Franklin D. It also breaks the unwritten rule that all travellers to future ruined Earth have to come across at least one moldering New York landmark. Meanwhile, the film squanders the chance for a Shyamalanian reveal – they were on Earth all along! – by announcing the fact in the opening minutes. If everything on Earth is inimical to humans, why are the birds so friendly? How has medicine evolved to the point where Cypher can plug a blood shunt into his injured leg, but they no longer make non-drowsy painkillers? And do we really need a computer to flash the words “Only Survivable Route” on the GPS? Might as well let the machine narrate the story it has better delivery skills than Smith Sr. The plot, meanwhile, has more holes than a doughnut factory. Cypher handles his offspring with all the tenderness of a Zen master, and at one point radios home to his wife this sensitive, 10-word dispatch: “I have lost contact with our son. All together now: “He needs a father.”īut what a father! Will and Jaden have had a lifetime of practicing to be dad and son, and they did a fine job together in the 2006 tearjerker The Pursuit of Happyness.īut in this one it’s as though Shyamalan told them to forget everything they knew about bonding. “He doesn’t need a commanding officer,” she tells him gently. Then there’s the scene in which Cypher and his wife, played by Sophie Okonedo, discuss their little boy. “Graviton buildup could be a precursor to mass expansion,” Cypher says to the pilot of his spaceship, and I wondered if the guy crashed them on Earth just so he wouldn’t have to listen to any more of this techno-babble. Īfter Earth features some of the worst science-fiction dialogue this side of Tatooine. Quarterstaff? I’d wager it’s a buck-and-a-quarterstaff at least. He also has a colour-changing outfit (made of the same stuff as mood rings) and his father’s fighting stick, which has more blades than the Swiss army. Despite the fact that this is a forest-covered Earth, the kid needs a supply of inhalers to give him enough oxygen to survive. Bleeding internally and apparently unable to act, he sends Kitai on a 100-km trek to recover the ship’s emergency beacon and call for help. Article contentĬypher has broken both legs in the crash. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Worse, all the animal life has, in the old man’s words, “evolved to kill humans.” Gives new meaning to the phrase “tourist trap.” This might sound like a stroke of luck, but in the future, Earth has been depopulated. Kitai gets his chance when the spaceship on which he and his dad are travelling - Cypher has announced he’s gong to retire after this mission, which is never a good idea in a movie - is damaged and crash-lands on Earth. ![]() Not really much of a hunter, then no Achilles heel, but an Achilles eye, ear and throat. This genetically engineered hunter can literally smell fear, although that seems to be its only sense. Kitai is desperate to follow in the footsteps of his father, a famous general and one of the few humans able to defeat an alien nasty called an Ursa. ![]() (Yes, this is one of those movies where you suspect that more thought was given to coining cool, futuristic names than to plot development.) Smith and his son Jaden play an actual father and son named Cypher and Kitai Raige. This one, which he co-wrote with Gary Whitta ( The Book of Eli) based on a story by Will Smith, takes place a thousand years in the future. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
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