Director: M Night. Shyamalen
Release Date: 2013
Running Time: 1hr 40 minutes
Genre: Sci Fi
Rating: 12
Format: Netflix UK
Synopsis:
Father Cypher and son Kitai Raige find themselves stranded on Earth, a thousand years after events forced all human life to escape!
Set in 3071, Earth was evacuated a thousand years ago, after humanity destroyed it. Humanity was taken to a new home Nova Prime Human Settelment! General Raige (Will Smith), decides to take son Kitai on a mission with him for a bit of bonding time, however their craft is hit by an asteroid storm, they soon find themselves stranded on Earth, they must go in search of their rescue beacon in the hope of returning home! Director M Night. Shyamalen has directed smash hit movies in the past including "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs", if I am honest, I'm not entirely sure what he was thinking when he directed this film? Considering the fact that Shyamalen writes most of his movies, makes them all the more impressive! I'm sorry to say that this is by far the worst film he's ever written!
M Night. Shyamalen clearly had a few bad years when it came to directing movies, with his movie "The Last Airbender" flopping miserably at the box office three years prior to this one! A Sci Fi film should be thrilling and exciting! According to Shyamalen, Will Smith was responsible for a lot of the direction on the film, including coaching his son Jaden Smith. Does this explain Jaden's shocking performance? Yes. Where was Shyamalen during the whole of this? I honestly don't know. I do however, get them impression that Will and his son Jaden were left to their own devices on how the movie should turn out.
Despite Shyamalen having a say in the screenplay, he wasn't entirely responsible for the terrible storyline. Writers Gary Whitta and Stephen Gaghan are partly to blame for that. The storyline is shockingly awful. Remarkably boring with absolutely no depth to the plot. Will Smith is a very well respected musician and actor, but this was not the right film for him. I always get the impression that Jaden Smith found work in movies, simply because of his famous mother and father. Perhaps a few lessons at Drama school could do him some good? Zero chemistry between actors. Father and son? In reality, of course, in the movie, are you serious? Neither actor delivers a single ounce of characterisation. Speaking of actors...they are the only actors!
Bad acting often comes from very poor directing. The actors don't understand their characters well enough to deliver a convincing performance. They aren't pushed to the best of their ability. Will Smith's worst performance to date! What makes me laugh the most, is the fact that Kitai is meant to be in search of their rescue beacon in the hope that they can contact their home planet and be rescued? You could have fooled me. There is absolutely no emotion in Will Smith's character. There's no way that you'd ever be able to sympathise with the characters. Clearly something happened to Cypher's daughter, why was that not explained?
The cinematography most certainly isn't at fault, as a digital film it looks very good, however the film really lacks production design. I wasn't convinced it was Earth, it's like watching an episode of "Lost", the props look silly and don't add to the tone of the film at all. The lighting is terrible in a few scenes, it's so dark you can't even see what's supposed to be happening. Although the score isn't excellent, it's not terrible either. It doesn't however work well with the movie. I wasn't convinced for a second that this was a Sci Fi film, the film is seriously lacking in storyline and in action. Will Smith should definitely stick to being in front of the camera, and M Night. Shyamalen most certainly should stick to writing his own screenplays rather then going by what others recommend.
1/5 stars
Twitter: djtamaramarie
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Contact: djtamaramarie@yahoo.co.uk
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