A crash landing leaves Kitai Raige and his father Cypher stranded on Earth, a millennium after events forced humanity's escape. With Cypher injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help.
A crash landing leaves Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) and his father Cypher (Will Smith) stranded on Earth, a millennium after events forced humanity's escape. With Cypher injured, Kitai must travel across earth to retrieve the beacon to signal for help.
After Earth starts strongly grabbing your attention with the main storyline straight away. This was a great way to start the film, as expectations of Jaden Smith sharing the screen with father Will was questionable. The film strips that down straight away and throws you into the crash landing on Earth.
You learn quickly that the film is based around the relationship of father and son (a great movie release time around fathers day). The bond between father and son grows throughout the film which was expected but still left you with the tingly feels throughout the film. I personally went into the film with preconceived ideas of Jaden and was pleasantly surprised by his performance in an action based storyline. Would it be as good without Will Smith - No, but the actual bond is conveyed well near the end of the film.
Although very serious there are a few golden moments and gag lines which break the tension and increase the likeability. Being jumpy at times the film kept you on your toes anticipating the new dangers which lurked in every corner of ‘Earth’.
Ok so the Techy side of things:
The scenario detailing lacked somewhat for me, almost seeming rushed. Although massively expansive and layers. The actual motion of the ‘New Earth’ wasn’t detailed enough for the technology of today.
For what looked liked a ‘Rainforest/ disturbed’ atmosphere you only really see two types of weather sunny and freezing. Although a short scene covers rain fall, I feel that an unstable atmosphere would kick up more weather fronts quicker and possibly multiple fronts within hours.
The monsters although very well animated, looked slightly pixelated, with no real intricate detailing on them. A simple splash of imaginative colour could have changed this, in order to convey evolution which is described in the brief for ‘Earth’
A final thought:-
A great film which I would definitely buy the DvD and watch at home. I would watch it again at the cinema but would need to leave it a week or two in between.
A sequel, ‘After Earth 2’ is rumoured to be releasing in 2015.
7.5 / 10 - A definite watch needed here guys.
~Wiskets