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“After Earth” is a great treat. This Will Smith co-production, directed by M. Nights Shyamalan, is about a father and son stranded on earth in the distant future. It’s an action-packed film with monuments interspaced inexorably between the plot. It’s a far cry from a classic, but still a unique film: striking and insightful.
Smith portrays a veteran soldier in space, metaphorically named Cypher Raige. Cypher’s son Kitai, an aspiring soldier who didn’t pass his last promotion test, is played by Jaden Smith (oh, the Karate Kid). The Smith duo are inseparable, even in co-writing the script alongside Gary Whitta, Shyamalan paints the future rather briskly. Humans have abandoned Earth and constructed megacities on a distant world Nova Prime. However, that world was already settled by a race that was not fond of the colonists and genetically engineered predators to annihilate them. They gave the killers the name “Ursus.” They remind me of my little pony but mutated and dipped in acid slush on top of being equipped with sharp pincers and teeth. These exact creatures use fear as a scent to track their prey.
The people of Nova Prime managed to fight off the terrifying areas to a standstill. However, one of the creatures killed Kitai’s sister when she was at home. He suffers deep from survivor’s guilt, while his father is devastated for being away when it all happened. On top of it all, Cypher is a bit of a Cypher, a ghost warrior a term used to refer to someone who fights without empathy. He is incredibly stoic and always comes off as a man whose laughter he needs to remind himself of. Kitai is a young, enthusiastic space cadet who wants to emulate and surpass his father, who deeply craves attention and affection that his dad isn’t able to give.
I see now that I’ve portrayed the protagonists as if the first hour involves listening to them in therapy. “After Earth” does not play out like this. It is a film about stoic characters desperately trying to survive and yes, it is a stoic film. The Raiges are caught in an asteroid storm that freakishly damages their ship, hurling it out of hyperspace and into an orbital skim across Earth’s atmosphere like a shattered pie plate before getting torn in two. The only survivors are Cypher and Kitai from the front half. In the crash, their distress beacon gets destroyed. The ship’s back half, which could contain a working distress beacon, is 100 kilometres away. If the castaways don’t call for help soon, they’ll be asphyxiated or devoured by one of the predators, which include an ursa that was cargo on their ship and got unleashed by the crash.
Cypher’s legs are broken. Kitai has to make the journey instead. equipped with a trusty “cutlass” ( a double-bladed weapon), an environmental suit that holds basic supplies and a video-audio system through which lets his father guide him from afar. Most of the film’s dialogue is as per the objectives: Get there. Do this. No dad, that wouldn’t work, I should do something differently. Cypher or Kitai tell the story, as the film reveals it through their perspective. Every scene plays out for as long as it needs to without going overboard. The camera is controlled with the intention to capture and follow movement, illustrate and frame action, hide or show suspense, and increase the understanding of the audience and the characters’ context within their world.
The term “A-list” best describes Shyamalanas and his current position in the world of cinema, pivoting between adventure and almost self-destructive ego blockage. For the longest time, his extreme self-centred approach to writing, acting and directing his movies was not letting him shine. And Shyamalan has never needed an ego boost. After perusing through ” The Village”, “Lady in the Water”, “The Happening” and “The Last Airbender”, he became a target of a lot of criticism in terms of his box office success and I think rightfully so. Nobody ever doubted his stage presence, and control over setting was always commendable, with the only flaw being the ‘twist’, and ‘So how do you like my movie magic’ endings. But now, after watching my so-named KapayanAce V, I believe Shyamalan is now at peak level footprint to be conquered. His Starship was destroyed, and pop mojo obliterated, it was grave to Shyamalan. But I am a retrospective nostalgic, loving the dramatics. His tactics might seem utterly gruesome to some, however, his pop mojo was as wrecked as Cyphere’s starship. Once an extraordinary voyager, and extremely documentative traveler, Shyamalan tried to set the bar higher but got swept in ego and lost it. Now, after all the drama, my suggestion is to obliterate all previous works and set out on a cleanse. After all the drama, I am tempted to see what is left for Shyamalan to wreck.”
Shyamalan claimed he doesn’t comes up with the accusations in this work. He completed the task of turning Smith’s story, which cited an article on a father and son who survived a plane crash from their imagination, into a space fantasy story. Shyamalan was then hired to direct the project. He is a mercenary on “After Earth,” but certainly not an uninterested one. “After Earth” is dimming the M. Night vibe, but it’s still in the film and it is particularly clear during the wide shots of Kitai losing his way around the mountains and forests, and the scenes of Cypher talking to his son while walking across lifesaving land. Their faces, tightly framed, answer each other through editing, winding up, at times, as one living being connected by a shared mind. In the film’s final act, the two seem merged as spiritually attuned to each other as E.T. and Elliott.
While the “Avatar” aesthetic appeals to the audience, the world created in “After Earth” seems to use CGI in a more realistic way. Instead of using special effects for the sake of entertainment, the film portrays an advanced ecosystem complete with animals and plants. It is home to Ferns which unfold in an icy night’s breeze. Birds form flocks and create shapes in the skies. The animal kingdom is populated with AI carnivorous baboons, wild beasts, and condors. These creatures exhibit intelligent behaviour and can sense threats around them. Shyamalan’s nature feels alive and offers a sense of madness and survival just like in classic movies such as “Aguirre’s The Wrath of God”, “Jeremiah Johnson,” “The Searchers,” “The Edge,” and “The Naked Prey” to name a few.
The film is lacking in an engrossing plot, which seems to be the only complaint in regards to “After Earth.” However, this lapse is made up through unforgettable and heartwarming moments. The characters are presented thoughtfully and their feelings are given utmost importance. The younger Smith delivers a phenomenal performance as the male ingenue, kind at heart, genuine, and completely devoid of vanity.
Smith the Elder places to the side the ‘Bel Air’ shield that makes his star performances extremely annoying and, instead, delivers a very reserved physical performance that heavily relies on subdued vocal tremors and body language to convey the fatherly’s suppressed worries for his son. In this clip, Will Smith’s teary eyes and battle-scared, crew-cut head are captured in close-up, and the star turns into a monument of machismo, where he is the middle-aged Burt Lancaster, mummified with pain and an incessant wearing of time.
The son learns from the father, as the father learns from the son. Danger truly exists, but according to the poster, fear features as an option when it doesn’t need to be. One can command events, becoming the creator of powerful moments regardless of overwhelming odds, as long as the wisdom of coping mechanisms from actual survivors was embedded. Yet, as much as we would like to simplify survival, not all rules are helpful or set in stone. The choice of disobeying sets in, orders received from the commanding officer filled with half your DNA are not as unquestionable as they seem. For the purpose of recreating themselves as equals, parent and child must part, and on some level, proudly complacently sad about their actions, both characters understand this.
It all sounds corny by today’s standards, but so do Aesop’s fables and Bible stories. “After Earth” portrays a sense of confidence because it understands clearly what message it aims to convey, and how to convey it. The asteroid storm appears suddenly as if it was willed into being by Aeolus making the winds blow. The design of the spaceship would make Odysseus feel at home: the ribs of the ship seem to be made of wood and bone. On Nova Prime, the skyscrapers are elegantly constructed from triangular wedges which are suggestive of a ship’s sails. Warriors fight with blades. Ursa is Latin for bear. Kitai’s leap from a high cliff is a leap of faith. His name means “hope” in Japanese. This movie is a fable. Fables teach.
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