After Earth
Cast: Will Smith (Cypher), Jaden Smith (Kitai), Sophie Okonedo (Faia), Zoe Kravitz (Senshi) Director: M. Night Shyamalan; Rated: PG-13
After Earth did something I wasn’t expecting… it made me think. Better than I was anticipating, this film isn’t exactly what it seems and I’m glad I saw it with my teenage son, given what this film is really about. After Earth is wearing a carefully marketed disguise. If you are expecting a Smith/Smith epic sci-fi action-packed adventure popcorn flick… well, you get some of that. But actually, at its core the film is a coming-of-age tale about the evolution of a relationship between a career-driven father and his teenage son. It’s about the struggle of a parent and child being forced to find a connection and faith in one another after tragedy and circumstance befall them. All the sci-fi galaxy hoo-ha is just a backdrop.
The movie takes place on a futuristic planet Earth where fearless uber soldier, General Cypher Raige (Will Smith), and his cowardly son, Kitai (played by Smith’s real-life son, Jaden) unexpectedly crash land. Every entity on this planet poses a threat and has evolved to kill humans instinctively. The spaceship’s broken in two and the sole survivors need to recover the tail in order to be rescued. When Cypher discovers he has broken both legs after the crash landing, there is no choice but to rely on Kitai to make this journey alone, which is troubling because he does not possess his father’s lack of fear.
It’s an interesting choice to bench action star Will Smith. He’s flat on his back most of the film. Unlike in most of his sci-fi themed movies, the power of Will is not saving the day. This one’s on Jaden and he needs every bit of his Karate Kid training to trudge through evolved Earth. Cypher can only guide Kitai with his voice throughout the journey to the half of their ship that contains a beacon signal that must be deployed if they are to be rescued. It is the responsibility of a parent to provide his child with the proper tools to do well on his own. But what do you do when you’re a fearless hero and your child is well… not?
After Earth begins with Kitai not making ranger staus. He’s prone to stress, panic attacks and straight-up fear. Okay, so he’s not exactly the super soldier his father is. Cypher possesses the rare skill of being able to shut out fear which makes his enemies unable to see, smell, or locate him. Kitai does not possess this gift. This proves disappointing to Cypher. His mother, Faia, played by Sophie Okonedo, establishes that Kitai has a better relationship with his mother; perhaps some bonding with Dad is in order. This is how Kitai ends up on a business trip with his father Cypher.
But something else is going on between these two which reveals itself in several flashbacks. Kitai had a sister, Senshi (Zoe Kravitz), who was killed by a predator called an Ursa. Senshi, played effortlessly by the delightfully easy-to-watch Zoe Kravitz, gives us a glimpse into what happened to Kitai and why he is so tormented. He blames himself for surviving an Ursa attack that took his sister’s life and he believes his father blames him as well. Thus the theme of family and familial stuff that needs to be worked out progresses.
If I had not seen this film with my own teenaged son, I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it as much as I did. I related to the parent-and-teen tug of war. The film has some cool moments once you let go of the fact that Will Smith is not going to get up and go save his real-life son. It’s all on Jaden, and despite a rocky start (Jaden speaks in an accent I can only describe as, well… not great. It’s supposed to be Australian… I think? It’s so distracting, I thought… uh,oh I can’t sit here. But my son was into the movie and Big Willy always makes me laugh, so I committed to relaxing and enjoying my mother/son time), the Karate Kid training pays off in spades. Jaden shows us his cool footing during climbs, jumps and a really entertaining glide through the air.
After Earth was adventurous for sure. The special effects were fine – nothing “Earth” shattering. Having a teen carry a mega-film is a big ask. Jaden does okay. He gets better as his character evolves; perhaps this is because the character grows closer to the real-life, confident Jaden. It’s very hard even for a second to get past the fact that you are watching Will Smith and his son Jaden. My take is this: because Will Smith is such an action star and Jaden was so definable in the Karate Kid, and they are such a well-known, real-life family, believing these two as space son and Dad was always going to be an automatic hurdle for the audience. If Jaden was any other actor playing against any other actor, maybe I wouldn’t be judging him with a magnifying glass.
All in all, After Earth is not the surefire summer blockbuster we had hoped for, but movie making is tough and the Smiths are entertaining in any form.
Reviewed by Lesa Lakin
Posts published in “Opinion”
From The Daily Beast:
Actress Vanessa Bell Calloway couldn’t helped but be moved by the recent editorial by fellow actress Angelina Jolie discussing her decision to have an preventative double mastectomy. In 2009, the veteran of stage, television, and film went in for a mammogram and was told the results looked “suspicious.” The co-star of the Showtime series “Shameless”—who appeared in the original Broadway production of “Dreamgirls” and became a familiar face to fans in the hit films “Coming to America,” “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” and “The Crimson Tide”—shares with Allison Samuels of The Daily Beast her head-butting battle with breast cancer, the lessons she learned about relinquishing control, and her plans for a healthier future for her two daughters.
I can still remember sitting straight up in my bed one morning thinking something’s wrong. I didn’t know what it was and I didn’t know where it was, I just knew something wasn’t right and I couldn’t explain it. I told my husband, an anesthesiologist, about the feeling I had. First he asked if I was in pain and I said no and then he said not to worry, but of course I did anyway. I had that nagging feeling that all women get at one time or another when that little voice in our heads just won’t be silent.
I’d always been very diligent about getting my yearly mammograms, pap smears, and anything else related to my health since I’d become an adult woman. Sometimes I’d even get them twice a year if the spirit hit me. I took care of myself in other ways as well. I’d been a dancer since childhood so exercise was a part of my daily regiment, and because I’m an actress, being fit goes along with the job description. A healthy lifestyle was an attitude I wanted to pass down to my two daughters, Ashley 22, and Alexandra, 18.
But despite all those years of dogged dedication to my well-being and the fact that there is no history of breast cancer in my family, four years ago I heard the dreaded words no woman wants to hear: the results of my mammogram were “suspicious.” In my mind I knew “suspicious” could mean cancer, but as much as I tried not to dwell on that reality, I somehow couldn’t stop myself. I told as few people as possible as my husband and I waited for the doctors to probe deeper.
It was cancer in its early stages in my left breast. Yes, at 51 years old I was stunned, but I had a plan that I put into action quickly. To know me is to know that I’m a “planner.” This would be no different. I would simply have a lumpectomy. Then I’d have radiation to complete treatment. There would still be no need to tell my parents, my husband’s parents, or my two daughters as my youngest was a sophomore in high school and my oldest was a sophomore in college. My girl’s lives wouldn’t have to be turned upside down and I could continue to go on auditions for television roles in-between treatments.
As you find your seat at BAM’s recent production and U.S. premiere of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Julius Caesar, a group of black actors cavort on stage, laughing and joking, casually passing the day in what appears to be a West African market place, immediately distinguishing this production of Julius Caesar from the Shakespeare you might remember from your 8th grade reading list.Certainly less romantic, and probably for that reason less popular than say Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar has nonetheless surfaced in the past year in a modern day prison in the Triviani brothers’ film Caesar Must Die, in an all-female production staged at the Donmar Warehouse, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, and now in an all-black production by Gregory Doran, using the political upheaval that has plagued modern day Africa as its backdrop.
Doran’s interpretation takes this classic drama’s transcendent themes – the corrupting influence of personal ambition, the fickle nature of public favor, and the unreliable symbols we pursue in making meaning of the world around us, just to name a few – out of the cool, limestone halls and monuments of ancient Rome, making them work and sweat under the hot, unflinching glare of the African sun.
“If he were white, we would call that spirit.”
Whether or not Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers President and General Manager, ever said this about Jackie Robinson in response to those who thought he might be trouble for major league baseball because of being court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of an Army bus, doesn’t matter.
What does is that Rickey’s (gamely played by Harrison Ford) matter-of-fact delivery of that line sums up not only the heart of the movie, but the heart of the double standard commonly applied to systemically oppressed people who refuse to comply with their own dehumanization.
Although based on actual events as Jackie Robinson integrated major league baseball, spirit is ultimately what the biopic “42” is about – fighting for unequivocal truths to come to light, and to stir the best within us all regardless of race, color or religion by leveling the playing field and by just straight up playing ball.
“Lincoln Heights” actor Chadwick Boseman, in his first major film role, does a commendable job bringing sports legend and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson to life. Boseman has an athletic grace and physicality that conveys the intelligence and scrappiness of Robinson’s game, but his performance shines most when he silently conveys Robinson’s struggle to hold himself in check when he is verbally and physically assaulted on and off the field.
At one point in the film, Robinson’s baseball prowess is remarked on as “superhuman,” but after seeing all he endured off the field in “42,” his ability to stay calm and focussed in the midst of a sea change in American sports and culture was arguably his most compelling power.
Writer/director Brian Helgeland wisely starts the film with a black reporter chronicling Robinson’s achievements (later revealed to be Wendell Smith of the Pittsburgh Courier, a well-known black newspaper of that era; Smith was assigned to cover Robinson’s journey), setting the stage by introducing and narrating America’s still racially tense post-war years.
By framing this film about a black hero through the eyes and words of a black reporter shows Helgeland, who wrote the acclaimed “L.A. Confidential” and “Mystic River,” understands how deeply this movie is about a watershed moment in African-American history as much as it is about one extraordinary man.
It needs to be told as “our story,” so by making Smith (played with quiet strength by Andre Holland) a guide, witness, admirer, and beneficiary of Jackie Robinson’s accomplishments, the core audience of “42” is able to hold the same positions while watching the story unfold.