After Earth (aka Will Smith/Jaden Smith/M. Night Shyamalan film SET IN THE YEAR 3000 Anticipation Thread)

Is it true that you alphabetized your laser discs?
Will: Yeah, I’m very, very serious about systems supporting creative inspiration.

Fondas were p. dope as dynasties go.

Derns

A smash success!:

After Earth is a dreadfully dull movie, essentially one long quest to find intergalactic cell-phone reception in front of a futuristic Earth backdrop that looks painted and is populated by CGI creatures that don’t even look up to Madagascar quality – they’re as flat and cartoonish as The Lion King. Will Smith is motionless for 75 percent of the movie, delivering each belabored line seconds apart (“I’m a thespian, I’m a thespian,” he thinks between each pained sentence instead of, "One Mississippi, two Mississippi"). Jaden Smith speaks like someone who’s never heard a British accent but who’s heard of British accents and is trying it out nonetheless. (It is never explained why he has any trace of a British accent, by the way.) He mumbles narration and only telegraphs extreme terror on that little, wincing face of his until his character magically doesn’t anymore.

I await Armond's challopsy rave review.

I'm fascinated by the complete and utter lack of any mention of M. Night's name on ANY of the promo I've seen for this one. Billboards, trailers, commercials... NOTHING.

― Young Boy Befriends Orange, Tangy Larvae in Luxs' Early (zero of the signified), Wednesday, May 29, 2013 6:55 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

until i opened this thread i had no idea night was involved

how is it he is still allowed to make movies? he's done like 4 bombs in a row now

the last airbender did surprisingly good money for being so critically reviled

i think maybe lady in the water is the only MNS to lose money at the box office (and it probably made some money in subsequent release windows).

but there's a strong perception of him as a guy who makes flop after flop, and despite what it may look like hollywood producers are kind of sensitive to critical response, especially when every film he's made since... the village (?) has gotten a drubbing.

so he's reduced to helming will smith vanity projects, and like most such projects this one is going down in flames.

so I really do wonder, perhaps out of morbid curiosity-- where does MNS go from here?

i kind of wonder if he'll go the john singleton route: attaching his name to ever-more-downmarket franchises and star vehicles, only being able to get a film off the ground twice a decade.

it's going to be ugly.

Speaking of Singleton, what derailed his career? Was it Shaft?

series of flops + shitty on-set behavior

and not being able to bring films in on time/budget or so i've heard

Singleton, Dickerson, Hughes Bros. - is Spike Lee the only vet of the great black filmmaker renaissance who kept making films? He probably should have stopped, too.

M. Night - it's amazing to see how quickly the good will vanished. "The Sixth Sense" is solid, "Signs" and "Unbreakable" massively flawed but ambitious in the right ways. But "The Village" is a beautifully shot mess, probably the first movie he made where the reveal at the end earned derisive dismissals. "Lady in the Water" is his most ridiculous ego-flop. And his last two have echoed as punchlines. This one is a smart move, since the Smith family will take the heat. As put in the Atlantic:

Shyamalan's involvement notwithstanding, After Earth is a vanity project of the burgeoning multinational Will Smith Inc. The movie stars Smith and his 14-year-old son, Jaden. It's produced by Smith, his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, brother-in-law Caleeb Pinkett, and longtime friend and business partner James Lassiter. And it's based on a story written by Smith as a vehicle for his son, a story that he conceived while he and his brother-in-law were watching television together. Which is a long way of saying that it might be best to give Shyamalan a pass on this one.

Ernest Dickerson has directed 5-6 episodes of The Walking Dead, but that's all I've seen his name on recently.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/m-night-shyamalan-reveals-he-ghost-wrote-shes-all-that-says-his-next-film-will-be-micro-budget-effort-20130530

i saw the trailer for that one m-night movie DEVIL in a theatre and yknow it was exciting and kinda scary and lots of heavy breathing and panicking and quick shots of scary things happening in darkness, and the audience sat in polite fear, and then it said

FROM THE MIND
OF M NIGHT SHYAMALAN

and the entire theatre as one burst into laughter

Like for Best Actor Oscars. Almost 90 percent of the time, it’s mental illness and historical figures, right?

Will Smith took 'never go full retard' to heart?

I await Armond's challopsy rave review.

would you settle for the bright, reputable Matt Zoller Seitz?

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/after-earth-2013

Ebert's remaining atoms of consciousness somewhere plotting murder.

Some of Shyamalan's images echo classic movie tales of survival and madness in nature: "Aguirre: The Wrath of God," "Jeremiah Johnson," "The Searchers," "The Naked Prey," "The Edge."

This review is hazardous, I think I damaged my left eye from the eyeroll this sentence induced.

Hate Roeper, but even he has some good zings:

This movie is “Take Your Kid to Work Day” to the extreme.

As for the plot, I guess recycling remains in vogue centuries from now. There’s so little here we haven’t seen done previously, and done better.

(If we have the knowledge and wherewithal to evacuate an entire planet and transport millions if not billions to another galaxy, why can’t we figure out a way to save our own world? It seems cheaper.)

“After Earth” is a film without wit or sparkle. At times the special effects look so cheesy that you wonder if they’re going to pull back and show members of the crew rocking the ship or working the strings on puppets.

TBF i have no stake in whether this film is good or bad. i'm glad that MZS has a different take on it. i don't know that i'm ready to spend $10 to find out whether he's right.

but you could say that of most movies. i haven't actually seen more than one or two new movies in the theater over the past three months. i think the last one was "barbara," which was a disappointment to me.

Some of Shyamalan's images echo classic movie tales of survival and madness in nature: "Aguirre: The Wrath of God,"

Movie critic kismet - this is from The Onion AV Club:

Austere, roomy compositions—courtesy of Peter Suschitzky, the longtime David Cronenberg cinematographer who also shot The Empire Strikes Back—frame Jaden Smith’s character against vast backdrops of swaying foliage; during certain stretches, After Earth looks more like an elaborate Werner Herzog homage than a big-budget sci-fi flick.

Word is that Now You See Me film is beating it this weekend. (And the new Fast and Furious still beating both.)

This review is hazardous, I think I damaged my left eye from the eyeroll this sentence induced.

― ...also i'm awesome (Nicole), Saturday, June 1, 2013 1:26 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

i dont see why shyamalan would be incapable of quoting the searchers

I'll put up with a lot of junk in return for some herzog knock-off shots.

does this film feature 5min long shot of Will Smith hypnotizing an iguana y/n

the audience sat in polite fear

+1

mzs is usually wrong imo

dude loves to heap elaborate praise on seriously mediocre shit

he is certainly a fan of hyperbole

seitz is a really good & thoughtful writer.

Wow, this is SO BAD. Not even worth watching on an airplane. I gave up shortly after the ship crashed. Like, nothing that happened had any meaning whatsoever. There are no stakes. I could not possibly care what happens to anybody in it.

So the twist will be...

― Ned Raggett, Monday, April 4, 2011 4:19 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Jaden is the father

― whelping at his sandpapery best (DJP), Monday, April 4, 2011 4:19 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark

SET IN THE YEAR 3000