Though it features Will and Jaden Smith in the lead roles and M Night Shyamalan behind the camera, After Earth had one of the lower-profile presentations at Comic-Con this year, with just screenwriter Gary Whitta on hand to talk the movie and its tie-in graphic novels. But in conjunction with the event, a viral teaser was put online, which you can scope out below.
After Earth seems certain to divide audiences, particularly given that its Shyamalan’s latest. He’s still got to earn back some credibility after the one-two punch of The Happening and The Last Airbender. At least this one looks a little more promising, even if it is tough to tell when it shows nothing of the actual film.
The movie boasts a hefty, detailed backstory describing humanity’s slow destruction of Earth’s resources and the fraught attempts to colonise other worlds. Some of that is covered in the brief clip above, which follows the basic timeline for disaster.
The film then picks up one thousand years after humanity has abandoned the planet, when Nova Prime has become mankind's new home. Legendary General Cypher Raige (Will Smith) returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai (Jaden Smith). When an asteroid storm damages Cypher and Kitai's craft, they crash-land on a now unfamiliar and dangerous Earth. As his father lies dying in the cockpit, Kitai must trek across the hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon. His whole life, Kitai has wanted nothing more than to be a soldier like his father. Today, he gets his chance…
Take a look at the trailer and tells us whether it gives you hope that Shyamalan could return to Sixth Sense / Unbreakable form with this one.
all sham's recent movies resemble a blind date- you go all excited that it'll be a great night out and build up expectations yet end up jerking one off before bed cursing your luck and hoping next time it will be different. Well, we all know it wasn't. He better make this one spot on otherwise you can safely say you witnessed rise and fall of sham. More
Posted by aliyevra2003 at 08:04 on 18 July 2012 | Report This Post
Snore...
That was the most boring lecture since An Inconvenient Truth... It lost me with the name 'Raige' over and over again... More
I like Shyamalan, but his movies have been going downhill since The Village. I love The Village, Sixth Sense and Signs and could never get into Unbreakable.
The Last Airbender was a bit of a joke and The Happening was hilarious.
The story sounds interesting, I just hope it isn't too preachy. More
Posted by HulkySmashSmash at 14:29 on 17 July 2012 | Report This Post
Sixth Sense and Unbreakable ...
... are cr*p. Sixth Sense hinges on a twist that was ruined for me because I thought 'oh this will be interesting, he's a ghost now and we'll see how he helps this boy' so for me there never was a twist. Then Unbreakable was just not really about anything. He squints and fights with his wife then he gets thrown into a pool. I do like Signs, though. I thought that was good. More
Posted by duchung304 at 04:05 on 17 July 2012 | Report This Post
This film does not really interest me. Will Smith to me unfortunately does not do challenging roles and on top of that I feel a cringe-worthy film with father and son. Can't Smith just play backup or supporting role for once instead of being some super being/super smart/super lucky/super important person!? More
Posted by PeroxideTooth at 23:54 on 16 July 2012 | Report This Post
Woeful
That's probably the least enticing viral I've ever seen. Nothing about it makes me want to see the film it's supposed to be promoting. More
Posted by RogueElement at 22:06 on 16 July 2012 | Report This Post