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New Shyamalan and Will Smith film After Earth gets panned
Critics call the new sci-fi thriller a Smith family 'vanity project'
The new film produced by and starring Will Smith and his son Jaden has taken a drubbing at the hands of the critics.
So far, the film, directed by 'The Sixth Sense' creator M. Night Shyamalan, has a lowly 13% 'fresh' rating on the reviews aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.
Many have called the film a Smith family 'vanity project', due to the heavy involvement of Smith's own Overbrook Entertainment production company.
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It centres on Smith and son Jaden crash landing on a hostile Earth, 1000 years after a cataclysm drove humans from the planet.
Jaden Smith's character Kitai then has to undertake a mission to get help while pursued by the evolved creatures which now rule the planet.
In recent years Shyamalan has become synonymous with bad reviews, but the opinions will likely sting for Smith.
The Wall Street Journal's critic Joe Morgenstern has asked whether the film is 'the worst ever made' in his review.
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“I've never seen a movie that moves so slowly, or takes itself so seriously, which is why it doesn't seem like a movie at all, but a sermon whose central subject is fear,” he writes.
He also asks 'why Mr. Smith, who has been such a brilliant entertainer over the years and decades, looks as if he has undergone a radical charismaectomy? It…is…all…very…mysterious…and…deeply…dreary'.
Morgenstern is far from alone in his views.
“The film progresses to the point where it feels less like father and son, and more like a young boy listening to an inspirational audiobook,” says The Playlist's Gabe Toro.
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Meanwhile Peter Travers of Rolling Stone adds: “After Earth merits comparison with 2000's 'Battlefield Earth', John Travolta's godawful film tribute to the sci-fi novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Yes, it's that bad.”
But despite roundly appalling reviews for Shyamalan's films since the well-received 'The Sixth Sense', only his 2006 film 'Lady In The Water' has approached being a flop.
2010's 'The Last Airbender', which received an even lowlier fresh rating with 6% made $319 million at the box office.
Similarly, despite the poor notices, The Wrap reports that audiences are still predicted to flock to the film this weekend, and that it could even scupper the fortunes of 'Fast & Furious 6'.
Analysts project that 'After Earth' should haul in $35 million over the weekend.
It's due out in the UK on June 7.
