MOVIES

Friday, June 7, 2013

AFTER EARTH review



After Earth is a sci-fi movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan and it stars Will Smith (Cypher) and his son Jaden (Kitai). It is flooded with criticisms for being dull and very predictable.  

I agree that its plot is indeed foreseeable. In the first part of the movie, you can already guess the plot without reading online reviews or watching trailers - "a troubled boy trying to prove himself, caught in an unexpected task, but in the end triumphs".

This is a Jaden Smith movie rather than a Will's. I think it was a product of nepotism as Jaden is not yet the best actor for the role. 

Will is injured, sitting, and keeping an eye remotely inside a wrecked-ship-turn-command-center for Jaden's mission. Kitai's mission is to recover and activate a rescue beacon located some 300 kilometers away from the ship.

The CGI effects were minimal. The movie is a product of Sony's 4K digital technology, nevertheless the number of visual effects was not enough to wow the audience. However, I personally appreciate the quality of the visual effects.

I love the idea of this "Earth", now a Class-1 quarantined planet and a very hostile one. A different air quality, having heavily mutated plants and animals and thermal shifts. While watching the movie, I recalled one of my best teachers in HS - Mr. Gil Ferrer (Adv Bio). This movie brought me to the time my teacher explained in detail "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest".  

Earth, though still paradise-looking, has completely changed. It was not explained in the movie, but perhaps it was a result of ecological imbalance after humans abandoned the planet. The movie depicted a retrospect of how humans abused Earth a thousand years back. I STRONGLY BELIEVE this could take place in the future basing on what is happening today.

In this movie, the baboons are very agile and colossal, well adaptive of this earth. The giant condor lays eggs in their nest built in extremely high altitude.  With a new look of the nest (spherically intertwined), this says it is an "evolved earth". The tigers or lions have also progressed to extraordinary-climbing cats. They are fierce! I was amazed how they climbed that altitude! (I can't get over with the insane idea) These are all possibly result of "survival of the fittest".

The flora retracts their leaves during thermal shifts. The extreme cold could be a result of earth no longer inhabited by our gigantic buildings and factories. Cars which also contribute to earth's global warming are no longer existent.

Kitai's suit was also fascinating. It is made of a fabric with embedded sensors which changes its color when it senses an approaching danger - a perfect camouflage! Very futuristic!

The oxygen capsules were also innovative. A perfectly adaptive tool in this "changed" earth.

Their electronic devices were not so new as we have witnessed far more remarkable effects in Iron Man series and other movies. On the other hand, the medical kits were slightly amusing.

The Ursa has a good root of "smelling" human fear.  We undergo changes in body activities in a snap when we feel fear. It might be that the Ursa could hear the fast heart beats and not literally or magically "smell" fear. Having said that, the term "ghosting" in the movie is merely an ability to control the heart rate. This in turn leads to the moral of the story - CONQUERING FEAR CAN BE OBTAINED BY FORGIVING.  As Cypher said: "danger is real, fear is a choice.  When you forgive yourself and forgive others, your heart attains peace.  You let go of anger, you eliminate fear. This results to courage of facing the present and the future - the ability of ghosting.  Ursa in this movie is just a representation of "fear". 

The moral lesson was so obvious but there was one thing that made me like this movie - another lesson - "The earth is turning hostile with our doings".
  

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