AFTER EARTH

[Ben Chiu]

I didn't have any inclination to see this one because M. Night Shyamalan's later works have left me feeling like I'd been played a fool a few too many times, so I've avoided his movies like the plague. However, I pretty much have liked everything Will Smith has ever done, and I liked the new Karate Kid (I'll basically watch anything with Jackie Chan in it too) and thought Jayden was good in that too. So I thought I'd just watch as much as I could bear and move on.

I didn't watch every minute, but from what I did watch, it was better than I thought. AFTER EARTH (AE) was highly predictable and obviously geared for youngsters and parents of 'tweens.' Will Smith's character was rather flat (my guess is it was on purpose so as not to steal Jayden's spotlight), but all in all, it wasn't terribly distracting. I won't watch AE again, but I can see it appealing to a certain age group.