10 Kinda Nice Things Critics Have Actually Said About Will and Jaden Smith's "After Earth"

Critics are savaging the father-son duo's latest. Well, not entirely.

May 31, 2013

Image via Complex Original

Remember when Will Smith was Hollywood's go-to king of the summer blockbuster? The Fresh Prince's reign kicked off in 1996, with the July 2 release of Independence Day, followed a year later by Men in Black; six years after that, Men in Black II; one year later, Bad Boys II. Smith owned Hollywood's biggest season. Which makes the embarrassingly dull and pedestrian After Earth—the sci-fi father/son adventure co-starring Will and Jada Pinkett's eldest child, Jaden Smith—all the more disappointing. It's not even June yet and we already have a strong contender for the summer's weakest big-deal effort.

It's fitting that After Earth was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, a once-exciting filmmaker who's work in this movie is pure anonymous-director-for-hire fare. Together, Smith and Shyamalan are getting bruised and battered by critics. Mostly!

Amidst the punches exist the occasional bit of praise, whether altogether complimentary or of the sideways variety. After scouring the film's reviews, we've gathered 10 kinda nice things critics have actually said about After Earth.

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Compiled by Matt Barone (@MBarone)

Crave Online

"It’s perfect for a warm summer afternoon spent lazing under a tree, providing daydreams for asthmatic kids who suspect that their fathers don’t really love them, and for that reason alone it probably deserves to exist." (William Bibbiani, Crave Online)

Minneapolis Star Tribune

"The only positive effect of After Earth is that it has improved the reputation of The Wild, Wild West, previously the worst movie of Smith’s career." (Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

AV Club

"There’s the problem of Jaden Smith; bereft of charisma or anything resembling acting talent, he’s more liability than lead. Fortunately, he spends almost the entire movie running, jumping, and listening to his father talk—all things that the young Smith or his stunt double seem to be very good at." (Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club)

Drew McWeeny

"This may not be the biggest bang for the buck this summer, but it's lovely to see something that is sincere, thematically focused, and that ultimately works in a way I didn't expect." (Drew McWeeny, HitFix)

New York Post

"I’m giving it one star because Smith’s longtime enablers at Sony apparently encouraged him to whittle this humorless sci-fi epic down from a much longer movie." (Lou Lumenick, New York Post)

Alonso Duralde

"There are occasional stirring moments—particularly when Kitai eludes a giant bird of prey while gliding in one of those flying-squirrel suits—but it ultimately feels like a slog of a vanity project." (Alonso Duralde, The Wrap)

San Jose Mercury News

"Clocking in at little more than 90 minutes, After Earth has to be one of the shortest summer 'blockbusters' on record. That's the good news." (Charlie McCollum, San Jose Mercury News)

Laremy Legel

"The level to which After Earth is a catastrophe is amazing, but what’s even more impressive is the lengths everyone must have had to gone to for such an epic level of failure." (Laremy Legel, Film.com)

Grantland

"I'm burying the lede here by not telling you immediately that Will Smith's character's name is Cypher Raige, which suggests that he's descended from a long line of American Gladiators. Cypher Raige! It never stops being funny, which is important, because aside from that name and the fact that Smith's chosen a future-guy accent that makes him sound like he's workshopping a Shelby Foote impression, this is a profoundly humorless movie. I promise you that after a while you'll come to cherish every utterance of the name Cypher Raige like a gulp of water in the desert." (Alex Pappademas, Grantland)

Time Out New York

**"At least the tacked-on narrative twist is a thing of the past. Making progress, M. Night." (Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York)**

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