It works because of its limitless possibilities, a perfect environment for small stories, rooted in our attraction to the harmony of opposities, and After Earth takes full advantage of this.ġ000 years in the future, Earth has become unihabitable by mankind. Artists have been mining science fiction since the very first recorded work of literature as a backdrop upon which to frame tales of the human condtion. After Earth is an extremely competent, allegorical tale with basically only two actors, which smartly exploits the grandiosity of the sci-fi genre to effect its modest goal of bringing a father and son closer together, perhaps in real life and in story. Overnight the film plummetted to just barely double digits on Rotten Tomatoes, echoing the prevailing sentiments prior to its release, about how atrocious it would be.īut is it as bad as people are saying? Not hardly. And it doesn't seem like After Earth is going to change that any. The director's bad press has even provoked continued astonishment that his films are even able to be funded.
It's gotten so bad, After Earth is the first film I've seen where I can't decide whether the decision to place all the credits at the end is an artistic decision, or one of self-preservation. The grumblings that began with that film have only amplified over the years, culminating in the director being awarded Golden Raspberries for his work on The Last Airbender. Night Shyamalan has become the favorite whipping-boy of critics and fairweather fans alike, beginning almost ten years ago with his 19th century tale, The Village.
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