After Earth Reviewed

I have been waiting AGES for After Earth to finally be released on DVD.  This is  because I refuse to spend bag loads of money going to a cinema and because I’ve got a whole waiting list of payments to make on Sky for previously watched movies lol.

Anyway, it finally came out on DVD last Monday and I gladly handed over my tenner to get my hands on it.  This was going to be the best movie ever!  It has Will Smith and his son in it, is about the future, it involves space exploration, it describes how we have messed up our planet.  It can’t go wrong, can it?

Oh but it can…

What I Liked

I think I have already told you what I liked.  It’s got the Smiths in the movie, which is generally pleasant.  The idea behind it is amazing.  This is a movie that you expect to be fantastic and not just because of its casting.  It is because it has real potential and could be something great.  The characters go back to our planet many years after we have totally ruined it.  Every single living creature on earth has evolved in order to kill us.  That has serious potential.

Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver.  The only part I truly enjoyed was the one where the son gets protected by the bird.  I won’t tell you anything else, because I don’t want to ruin one of the scenes of course.  However, that particular scene is moving and really well presented.

What I Didn’t Like

I didn’t like many things about this movie.  Will Smith sounds weird, for starters.  He portrays a general, but not one that I can identify him with.  Having watched Independence Day, picturing Smith as an army person isn’t hard, but he’s really different here.  He’s serious and generally not a very nice guy.  He even speaks differently!

His son has a perpetual look of “please feel sorry for me” on his face and his acting skills have not really come on much over the past few years.  Unless he was actually supposed to play the “please feel sorry for me” role, of course, in which case he actually did very well.

The story line was poor, not enough action happened, the ending was simplistic.  Crikey, even the part where he finally learns to “ghost” was disappointing.

This is not Will Smith at his best.  Who knows, someone might make a remake of it in about 20 years time and I might enjoy it then.