After the earth is no longer fit for human inhabitants, the human race is evacuated to another planet in order to survive.

On this planet however, are giant grotesque creatures that have it out for human kind. Although they are blind they can still smell fear and use it to find and kill. The only way to win against one is to train yourself to not be afraid–easier for some than others. Cypher Raige, played by Will Smith, has been able to perfect this talent while his son, Kitai (played by Will Smith’s real life son Jaden Smith), has more difficulty because he Is trying to overcome palatalizing memories. On the way to transport one of these captured creatures to another planet, their space ship is damaged and the only place to land is the now wild and highly dangerous Earth. Katai must overcome all his fears and do the seemingly impossible in order to save both he and his wounded father.

After Earth is enjoyable and you do get sucked in the story quickly. The theme “danger is real but fear is a choice” is also very empowering. The story itself was written by Will Smith and I can tell, after having followed his interviews over the years, is very indicative of Will’s own philosophy on life.

The acting is acceptable and I didn’t see anything particularly wrong with it but it was not amazing. The visuals were diverse and beautiful in the settings and time was spent on the “money making” dramatic scenes to get the CGI to be very effective. The monster was big and bad and nasty–just as they wanted it to be. But that being said, there were a few little parts that were not finished off the same and a were a little distracting.

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, this was an enjoyable movie, however as with my experience with almost all of  M. Night Shyamalan’s movies, it left me without a completely satisfactory resolution. Did it end too fast? Too slow? Not enough up? Not enough down? I still don’t know.

I give the movie 3/5 stars and say that while I think most people will like it, it is completely acceptable to wait to the dollar theaters for this one.

★★★1/2

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTRRu4IILYQ]