After watching the widely panned ‘After Earth’ (2013), I just want to know which Hollywood overlord blacklisted M Knight Shyamalan with such steadfast ire that his films have been vitriolic critic fodder circa ‘The Sixth Sense’?
At this point, it may be necessary to admit that I’m fan.
I thought ‘The Sixth Sense’ (1999) was incredible, ‘Unbreakable’ (2000) was inspired, ‘Signs’ (2002) freaked me out as did ‘The Village’ (2004), ‘The Happening’ (2008) and ‘Devil’ (2010) and I only grudgingly entertained the facts that ‘Lady in The Water’ (2006) and ‘The Last Airbender’ (2010) may have been on the right side of snafu.
This is why, when I saw ‘An M Knight Shyamalan’ film in the introductory credits of ‘After Earth’ (2013), I was, admittedly, more than a little excited.
Suddenly, it wasn’t just Will Smith’s continued pursuit of the happyness that sees him once again playing the father of his real life son, Jaden. Instead, I thought it would be another cryptic piece of art in the twisty, monster-filled and supernatural fashion that has made Shyamalan as famous as he is ridiculed.
It isn’t.
Yes, there is Shyamalan’s inevitable beast but instead of it being scarier due to it being a rumour, an idea or a whistle on the wind, it is a tank of thing called an Ursa which is a weapon used to destroy mankind on behalf of an alien race called the S’krell.
1000 years later Earth has been abandoned and humanity has relocated to a planet called Nova Prime while still waging war against the S’krell but managing to fight against them sensing fear by ‘ghosting’.
Naturally Papa Smith is the hero of the whole affair and a master ghoster. His son Kitai not so much.
Cut to Papa Smith taking his son on his last expedition while transporting an Ursa, crash landing on Earth where everything has evolved to kill humans, including the now escaped Ursa, and you have something Shyamalan can work with.
Unfortunately, the result is underwhelming.
Lacking subtlety, surprise and with the less talented Jaden Smith taking centre stage over his father, the film struggles through a mire of science-fiction and father and son clichés without much help from Shyamalan who seems to paint it by numbers.
This film is better than critics say it is and worse than what fans of Shyamalan have been hoping for since they signed up for his club’s life membership but it is watchable and when it comes to cinema… That’s the main thing.
– martha@namibian.com.na
