Quartile rating: 5/10 · 1 rating
One thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity's escape from Earth, Nova Prime has become mankind's new home. Legendary General Cypher Raige returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai. When an asteroid storm damages Cypher and Kitai's craft, they crash-land on a now unfamiliar and dangerous Earth. As his father lies dying in the cockpit, Kitai must trek across the hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon. His whole life, Kitai has wanted nothing more than to be a soldier like his father. Today, he gets his chance.
After Earth is a coming-of-age survival story wrapped in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi shell, but it fails to distinguish itself in most categories. The plot is thin and predictable — a father-son bonding narrative grafted onto a fetch-quest survival scenario with little dramatic complexity. Will Smith and Jaden Smith's performances are widely considered among the weaker of their careers; Will Smith's deliberately affectless performance (by design) and Jaden's uneven emotional range drag the acting category down. Cinematography is serviceable with some attractive location photography but nothing particularly inspired. Novelty is low — the premise of a dangerous evolved Earth has been explored elsewhere, and the execution is formulaic rather than distinctive. The ending resolves too neatly and without earned emotional resonance, closing a journey that never built sufficient tension or character investment.