Reviews: After Earth (2013)

Reviews for this film from our members:

• Dragan Antulov @ Draxblog VI [Croatian]
• Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
  • Excerpt: After Earth may be the most bizarre and expensive allegory in film history: a young man of limited talents trying to match his more successful father and not just failing, but dragging both of them down with him.
• Steve Biodrowski @ Cinefantastique Online
  • Excerpt: Feels less like a drama than an instructional video: how to survive on an alien planet.
• Luke Bonanno @ DVDizzy.com
  • Excerpt: Paternal pride and a practically perfect track record do not seem like bad starting points, but when they are then married to this kind of grandiose science fiction and placed in the hands of M. Night Shyamalan, things start to go awry.
• Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
  • Excerpt: [Shyamalan’s] best film since The Village, which would be a really mean thing to say about anybody who wasn’t the auteur behind Lady in the Water.
• Kevin Carr @ 7M Pictures
  • Excerpt: I hope you all liked “Men in Black III” last year, because we’re paying for it with this movie now.
• Jim Dixon @ Examiner.com
  • Excerpt: “After Earth” is a plodding, predictable story that feels longer than its hour and forty minute running time. The irony here is that while “After Earth’s” visuals strut their stuff best on the big screen, the story only merits Red Box.
• Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
  • Excerpt: Here’s one of those instances where a little mystery surrounding the scenario and characters could be of benefit…
• Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
  • Excerpt: Nepotism has always been part of the Hollywood firmament, but it’s sunk to a new low with Will Smith’s vanity vehicle for his 14 year-old son Jaden.
• Vadym Grygoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
• Oktay Ege Kozak @ Oregon Herald
• Benjamin Kramer @ The Voracious Filmgoer
• [New – 1/16/14] | Donald Levit @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
• Glenn Lovell @ CinemaDope.com
  • Excerpt: Neither a terrible film nor a very good one … Adolescent boys looking for a Saturday afternoon time-kiiller could do worse.
• Peter Martin @ Dallas Film Now
• Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
  • Excerpt: After Earth is the cinematic equivalent of Rebecca Black’s “Friday” – a parent-funded vanity project gone horribly wrong and thrust out into the world for the rest of us to not enjoy.
• Jason McKiernan @ Next Projection
  • Excerpt: As it drones on from one mind-numbing set piece to the next, shrouding its Third Grade-level plot in the guise of an interminable faux mythology, one starts to miss the arch arrogance of the former M. Night brand…
• Brent McKnight @ Giant Freakin’ Robot
• Frank Ochieng @ SFcrowsnest
  • Excerpt: Awkwardly probing, ‘After Earth’ feels like a cinematic homework assignment for Smith’s teen-aged charge Jaden with Shyamalan’s requested presence as the hired tutor catering to the movie’s arbitrary, surrealistic vision.
• Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
• Jason Pirodsky @ Expats.cz
  • Excerpt: After Earth is a wearying, frequently interminable experience that seems to move slower and slower as it drags on to its inevitable conclusion.
• Tiago Ramos @ Split Screen [Portuguese]
• Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
  • Excerpt: A lively, red-blooded adventure with a rare great father and son bond at its center.
• Diego Salgado @ Fandigital [Spanish]
• Marcio Sallem @ Em Cartaz [Portuguese]
• Tom Santilli @ Examiner.com
  • Excerpt: Unbelievably, Shyamalan is able to lower the bar even further with After Earth, a bland and unintelligent futuristic sci-fi film that makes The Last Airbender seem like Citizen Kane.
• Amir Siregar @ Flick Magazine [Indonesian]
• Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
  • Excerpt: Incredible–though not in a good way.
• Jean-François Vandeuren @ Panorama-cinema.com [French]