Movie: After Earth Review -- Top 10 Complaints!!!

Image from IMDb

Maybe I was wrong in the last entry about staying in as the only possible thing I could do. I did go to cinema to watch movies. I watched two movies the week before:  After Earth by Will Smith and his son Jaden, and The Hangover Part III. Today, I want to talk about After Earth.

Honestly speaking, I'm quite a fan of Will Smith, from his action movies such as Independence Day, MIB series as well as I am Legend to a less popular romantic comedy Hitch, I have watched them all. Then came his son in The Pursuit of Happyness, and I began to realise, hey, daddy's eager to make his little boy famous. Then, as we all know, came the 2010 Karate Kid with the no-longer-pride-of-Hongkongers Jacky Chan (due to the statements he made about his political stands), and now, After Earth.

Seeing the father-and-son pair on the poster I was already like, "Not Again!" But yes, again! I was going to watch it anyway because of Will Smith, and I was sold by the following video on Discovery News about the scientific aspects of this movie,

so I thought, alright, just give it a go. As a result, I really didn't get to see the magic of Will Smith, but in return, got to see almost a full solo of Jaden.

Here are my complaints:

Complaint 1: A 1000 years later, a new "Hello" in English

Faia Raige, the wife
Image from afterearthmovieofficial.wikia

No offence to the actress but I think everyone in the cinema heard the character Faia Raige welcoming Will Smith home with a "HaH?" instead of a "hi" or a "hello". Considering that after 1000 years they still speak the same English as we do today, I suppose that "huh?" is more of a mistake from the actress than a line from the script. Pronunciation-wise, sounds perfect as a "what?" in Cantonese, causing the eruption of laughs.

Complaint 2: A broken-leg Will Smith

Will Smith scanned his broken leg
Image from eonline

I am perfectly fine that Will Smith doesn't feel scared in front of human's biggest nemesis, the Ursa, a giant spider-like alien which detects human existence through the pheromones secreted from the human body. I like the idea that Will is the ultimate hero in the story who can "ghost".

But how on earth did they come up with such a continuation of a brilliant storyline? The know-it-all Will Smith got a broken leg from a spaceship crash and then he ended up sitting in a chair in agony for the rest of the movie. He needed not fight, just act like JARVIS (from Iron Man) on a very low battery, easily giving away all those film time to his son. Come on! I came to watch you! Not your son!

Complaint 3: A pain-killer that still makes you sleepy
Injecting pain-killers would make Will Smith sleepy and he wouldn't be able to monitor his son, I get it. But 1000 years later the pain-killer meds still have sleepiness as side-effect? Talk about improvement in medicine!

Complaint 4: A container that seals pheromones

Young Jaden hid himself from Ursas' invasion
Image from cmgdigital

Young Jaden's sister was killed because she couldn't ghost, fair enough. But young Jaden saved his life by hiding in a box because "the Ursas couldn't smell his pheromone, then why didn't everybody just make more boxes? How about making a huge one to cover the entire home, or the entire colony? After 1000 years, all they had was enough materials to make ONE! Come on! Give me a break!

Complaint 5: Excellent human-animal communications

Image from intomobile

"Leave me alone!" shouted Jaden to the Might Eagle from Angry Birds.
"Leave them alone!" shouted Jaden to the lions who climbed trees to eat baby eagles.
"Get away!" shouted Jaden to the enlarged baboons.

What??? Seriously?

Complaint 6: Extreme weather changes yield tropical rainforest
If the temperature fluctuates from tropical rainforest hot in the day to Iceland cold at night, how on earth do you get green leaves everywhere?

Complaint 7: Sensor-embedded suit and breathing fluid

Image from enjoymusics

Okay, your sensor-embedded suit doesn't have temperature regulating ability to keep you warm but can change colours when in danger. What a suit! Breathing fluid to help breathing? Why not just include an oxygen regulator in the suit as well? Also, there are so many people on the spaceship, just 5 breathing fluids at the front part of the spaceship?

Complaint 8: An Ursa that just wanted to kill Jaden

Jaden battles Ursa
Image from diariodonordeste

The Ursa did kill all baboons, but why didn't the Ursa start killing every other living thing in the forest? Why kept running around for Jaden? Weren't there anything else that releases pheromones in the forest other than baboons and Jaden?

Complaint 9: a 1000-year of human evolution, the ultimate weapon is...

Image from futurewarstories

Body combat? Seriously? No guns? A 1000 years later, humans must have gone dumber.


Complaint 10: Overly-Predictable Storylines
When the plane crashed, you knew the father-and-son pair would be fine. When Will Smith broke his leg, you knew that he would rely on Jaden. When Will asked his son to find the tail of the spaceship, you knew he couldn't handle the environment. When some breathing fluids were broken, you knew Jaden would lie to Will. When Jaden was at the cliff, you knew he would jump. When he was caught by the eagle, you knew he would be fine. When he fought the lions, you knew he would get away. When all the baby eagles died, you knew the eagle mum would follow Jaden and protect him on the way. When night fell, you knew Jaden would be frozen and be almost dead. When Jaden was frozen, you knew the eagle mum would save Jaden by sacrificing herself. When the Ursa found Jaden, you knew they would fight, Jaden would be able to ghost and he would kill the Ursa and Will Smith wouldn't die. At the end, you knew this was how the story ends.

Image from IMDb

Overall, with 4.9 /10 as rating on IMDb, After Earth is some greatly ridiculous movie and it will be a strong contender for the upcoming major "worst movie awards". I've also learnt, once again, not to watch any movie from Jaden Smith ever again.


Vocabulary:
pheromone -- (n) [C] a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species.
combat -- (n) [C or U] a fight, especially during a war:
dumb -- (adj) mainly US informal stupid and annoying:
sacrifice -- (vb)[T] to give up something that is valuable to you in order to help another person:
contender -- (n)[C] someone who competes with other people to try to win something:


Resources:


After Earth @ IMDb
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1815862/

Is 'After Earth' Our Future? @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/ZzJCPyeljpw

AFTER EARTH Film Clip - "Monkey Discovery" - HD @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/lYoK3FvkfC4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursa_(spider)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phermones
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/combat_1?q=combat
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/dumb_1?q=dumb
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/sacrifice_1?q=sacrifice+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/contender?q=contender+