After Earth Review

Can M. Night Shyamalan redeem himself with the help of Will and Jaden Smith in After Earth?

It seems well known that Shyamalan has lost some credibility after two major missteps with the widely panned Last Airbender and the unintentionally comedic The Happening. So it seems only the likes of superstar Will Smith (who also supplied the story as well helped produce the film) could guarantee  a safeguard against another major misstep in an already troubled directorial career.

Smith's presence on the project definitely keeps things focused. Indeed, maybe too focused. After setting up the sci-fi universe where humans have abandoned earth for some reason we get pretty brief character set ups before the film thrusts us into a simplistic survival story. The film really wears its sci-fi setting on its sleeve and chooses an almost Cast Away route where the main narrative strings involve survival and survival only.

Which seems fine, many films get caught up in convoluted plots and Shyamalan could have easily let things slip into such non-sense. However, in order to make the survival aspect really engaging we need to become heavily invested in the characters. While the performances serve as effective emotional hooks, the script and dialog feel a little stale and ultimately seem to hold the performances back.

The other thing that the film really needed to nail, the sense of wonder and terror of an alien environment. I think a film like Jurassic Park conveys perfectly the kind of feeling that After Earth needed to emulated and possibly surpass to become a really good film. While it has its moments of terror, it only rarely achieved moments of awe and wonder. Much of the time the film kind of just goes along leaving me feeling passively engaged. Every now asking myself questions like, why wouldn't they have guns or gloves in the future?

 The movie actually does have some almost great set pieces and Shyamalan displays from time to time a Hitchcock like ability to create tension and shock value. Although the more gruesome  make me wonder if the film will prove too intense for younger viewers.

At the end of the day, After Earth has good performances and competent direction as well as a pleasing look combating against a simplistic story and an average script. For my money I'd say skip it unless you really like Will and Jaden Smith and or survival tales.

6/10 - slightly above average.

Now You See Me Review

The director of The Incredible Hulk, Transporter, and Clash of the Titans … the remake, tries his hand at more cerebral material with Now You See Me, a twisty turning thriller along the lines of Brothers Bloom meets The Illusionist meets … Zombieland? How does it fair? Well, let’s just say all the movies mentioned surpass Now You See Me. Things start out well enough however, with the introduction of four quirky magicians (headed up by Zombieland duo Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg) who all get called together by someone or a group of someones issuing them mysterious Tarot cards telling all four to go to a hotel where they will receive further instructions.

 Fast forward a little bit and the groups has a highly successful Vegas magic act wherein they rob a bank using magic. Suffice to say the FBI doesn’t take too kindly to bank robbing magic or not. Enter Mark Ruffalo, a FBI agent charged with figuring out the hows and whys and generally playing the cat to our magician’s mouse, he also has a french partner who serves as a love interest and someone to explain plot threads and drop hints to the audience. Oh wait, Morgan Freeman takes that role-- not the love interest, (although that would prove an interesting twist) the plot explainer.

You see, after the big bank robbing trick our FBI agent goes to good old Morgan Freeman who offers up some lovely exposition explaining how they did it. Speaking of exposition, the movie has tons of it. The movie has a habit of characters rarely talking to each other. Most of the time we get exposition after exposition explaining the convoluted plot. But the biggest fault I found with the picture came in its use of screen time, namely its refusal to focus on the magician characters who prove the most interesting aspect of the film. Woody Harrelson feels like a joy to watch and has great chemistry with Jesse Eisenberg, their two characters represent the film's biggest strength which makes it all the more maddening that most of the film we follow Ruffalo’s character doing his tired FBI agent procedural schtick.

Wait a second, quirky characters and dialog between Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg? Haven’t we seen that before? Anyway, as things start heating up the film shows more and more Ruffalo and less and less of the magicians, which means more and more oh so redundant police procedural. Now to the film's credit it did have me fooled when it came to the twist at the end. However, when these big reveals that the film has flaunted over us throughout the picture do come along it feels: cheap, unearned, ultimately sloppy, and blows swiss cheese holes throughout the entire plot.

 Because of the twist whole sequences make little to no sense in retrospect. All that aside, I would not call Now You See Me a total waste, it kept me mildly engaged throughout and it moves along at a fast enough pace that I could only pick it apart after it ended. It never aimed very high but it never sank to abysmal lows. Interesting ideas that needed a tighter, leaner, and smarter script to let them flourish.


 6/10 - Interesting ideas and solid performances make for a decent ride.