After Earth, while a step above The Last Airbender, by no means makes up for Shyamalan's previous cinematic blunders. At least this time, he can actually share some of the blame since he essentially worked as a director-for-hire. Commonly referred to as a Smith family vanity project, After Earth is a father-son survival story teetering the edge between thriller, adventure, and snoozefest.
After their ship crash lands on Earth, a planet no longer safely inhabitable, a life-saving device must be retrieved from a far-off piece of wreckage by the somewhat feckless son (Jaden) while being directed by his severely injured war hero father (Will). This very straightforward story is as simple as it comes, and it's as predictable as it sounds. And they manage to drag this story out for what feels like the longest 100 minutes. For a simple story, 100 minutes is a lot. Couldn't they have cut it down to at least 90? The pacing isn't awful, but it's the principle of the matter, particularly when the story is so uninvolved and follows such a connect-the-dots pattern.
While the scenery and special effects are mostly believable and would probably look really pretty in IMAX, the film's central focus on just Will and Jaden mean that their performances have to be outstanding. Jaden did pretty well. Strangely, Will fell very flat. For such a well seasoned actor, I expect something far better. Some of his lackluster performance is probably in part due to the limitations of his character, an injured military man not prone to showing emotion, but the almost wooden delivery of his dialogue and the lack of facial expression just seemed very uncharacteristic for the often charismatic actor. I wanted him to crack a joke. Or a smile. Or raise an eyebrow. Anything. No such luck. The lack of emotion made it hard to relate, which made me want to check my watch even more.
For a film supposedly directed by Shyamalan, very little if any of him actually shows up in the film. There's no twist ending. No ADHD editing. This lack of what most people know Shyamalan for is probably a good thing for those who avoid him on principle (ahem, me), but for people expecting some of those touches, they're missing. Maybe that's due to Shyamalan's lack of influence in the story's creation, or maybe that's just the new style we should come to expect from him. In any case, it was a little unusual for a Shyamalan film, which might actually end up being a good thing for After Earth in the end.
