If there’s an upside to being
responsible for one of the worst mainstream movies ever made, it’s that your
next film is bound to be a significant improvement even if simply feels as if
it was released to theaters intentionally and not as some sort of prank. Such
is the case with our old friend M. Night Shyamalan, the auteur who was at one
point one of the most promising young filmmakers in the world. He gave us The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and the terrific first two acts of Signs. Since then, he’s been responsible
for the last act of Signs, The Village, Lady in the Water, The
Happening and The Last Airbender.
The writer/director who was once a major selling point had become a punchline,
and after Airbender in particular it
seemed as if his career was on the rocks.
Enter Will Smith, who wanted
Shyamalan to direct his upcoming film project After Earth, initially titled One
Thousand A.E., despite the fact that people were jumping off the Shyamalan
ship left and right. Shyamalan would help shape the plot of the film—he gets a
screenplay credit—but by the time he signed on the story had more or less
already been set. This was not to be "an M. Night Shyamalan film," but a for-hire
job that would more or less give him one last shot at blockbuster directing
after the plane crash of The Last
Airbender. Unexpectedly, this gamble has paid off. After Earth is not difficult stuff—the plot has all the complexity
as a Super Mario level—but it’s an
efficient, entertaining and sometimes legitimately suspenseful thriller that
proves that Shyamalan can actually be pretty good behind the camera when he still wants to be. I’m not
exactly ready to scream “He’s back!” from the mountaintops, but it’s a movie that
effectively does everything it sets out to do.
After Earth stars the father/son team of Will and Jaden Smith as Cypher Raige (yup) and Kitai Raige, respectively. They are inhabitants
of the planet Nova Prime, a settlement which was created a thousand years prior after humans abandoned Earth
because they rendered the planet uninhabitable. On this planet, there is some exposition
that sets up a strained relationship between father and son, but in an attempt to bond they board a ship together and young Kitai gets to follow his father on
one of his galactic adventures. After an accident, their ship crash lands on Earth, and a
critically injured Cypher is unable to trek across the planet
and find the transmitter. For this, he turns to his son, and Kitai ventures out
into the wilderness for a journey that will test all that he learned in Ranger
training. Of all the dangers out there, the most troubling is a creature called
the Ursa, which literally smells fear.
Perhaps my positive reaction
is based on incredibly low expectations going in, and I wouldn’t be shocked if the
overall critical reaction isn’t exactly as positive. However, based on the general gist
I was getting at my screening, audiences are going to eat this thing up. It’s a
well-constructed movie overall, and it doesn’t waste any time getting to where
it wants to go. It clocks in at 100 lean minutes, and it uses just about every
one of them. After Earth is a movie
without bloat, unnecessary characters or needless digressions. It sets up a
point A-to-point B scenario and elegantly sees it through to the end. It’s more
a star vehicle for Jaden Smith than his father, who for most of the movie is
relegated to the sidelines as a de facto color commentator.
Weirdly enough, some of my
favorite moments in After Earth are
the ones in which the Shyamalan touch is most apparent. He’s
always had a gift for creating an unsettling, potentially suspenseful tone, but
if handled poorly that tone can venture into the unintentionally hilarious. (See: Happening, The) Despite the potential
cartoonishness of some of the material here, he is able to create some moments that are as tension-filled as anything he’s done since Signs. In particular, there is an early
scene aboard the spaceship where young Kitai first goes face-to-face with the
Ursa and his fear. The moment was genuinely affecting; so much so that I
found myself wondering where this guy
had been for the last decade. Even in the weightless CGI landscape of this
future Earth, Shyamalan is able to put together some really thrilling moments.
He’s working with a good cast, of course, but much of After Earth is really well done on a technical level. The same
could not be said of The Last Airbender,
which went out of its way to be clunky and unwatchable.
There are some weird choices
here, make no mistake. (I’m not sure why the accents need to be what they are.)
However, After Earth makes a fine
case that a leashed Shyamalan is perhaps the best Shyamalan. He has some good
ideas now and then, but maybe just turning into a director-for-hire is the best way
to go. He’s always been incredibly talented, and even in his worst movies there have been
moments where the good Shyamalan is able to shine through. After Earth is too conventional and predictable to be really good, but it’s a solid sci-fi
actioner that should capably entertain the masses for this weekend and the next
few to come. It’s no masterpiece, but in order to save Shyamalan’s career it
didn’t have to be. All he needed to do is prove that he isn’t a lost cause, and
in that respect he ever so slightly exceeded expectations.
Grade: B
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