After Earth
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: May 31, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
33
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
17
Negative:
20
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzJun 5, 2013
After Earth is ultimately too thin of a story to support all of its grandiose embellishments, but so what? It's better to try to pack every moment with beauty and feeling than to shrug and smirk. The film takes the characters and their feelings seriously, and lets its actors give strong, simple performances. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereMay 30, 2013
That there are no surprises (jumps, yes, surprises, no) should surprise no one – Will Smith movies must uplift the human spirit and reaffirm our best instincts while reassuring us that our ticket money has been well invested. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 30, 2013
In truth, despite more corn than Mel Gibson grows on his farm in "Signs" (another Shyamalan effort), After Earth is worth a look. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 30, 2013
Won't change your world, but it's attractive and Smith the Elder, lowering his voice to subterranean James Earl Jones levels, delivers a shrewd minimalist performance. His son may get there yet. Read full review
60
Total FilmNeil SmithJun 7, 2013
Jaden Smith takes centre stage in a futuristic rites of passager that plays like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone. Although "Oblivion" narrowly remains this summer’s better ruined-Earth actioner. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMay 30, 2013
The movie takes off from a concept as basic as a videogame, and it sticks to that concept, without surprise. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiyVishnevetskyMay 29, 2013
Shyamalan’s sensibility may not be enough to turn After Earth into a great (or even very good) film, but it does yield interesting — and at times strikingly realized — results. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 30, 2013
Though it's meant to be pulse-pounding, After Earth is a lethargic slog. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 30, 2013
There’s nothing more to this movie than the set-up. Even though Cypher is slowly bleeding to death, and Kitai is running out of oxygen capsules that allow him to breathe in the toxic air, there’s no sense of urgency, either. At least Shyamalan, sensing the thinness of the material, doesn’t stretch things out. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMay 30, 2013
M. Night Shyamalan has directed movies that are surprising, hokey, suspenseful, sentimental, clever, touching or cheesy. But until After Earth, he hadn’t made any that are dull from end to end. Read full review
50
The PlaylistGabe ToroMay 30, 2013
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. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 31, 2013
It’s impossible to take this movie seriously, certainly not as seriously as it takes itself. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMay 30, 2013
The plot is simplicity itself, and Jaden's quirk-free character and bland performance don't add anything. It's actually a little sad that M. Night Shyamalan has descended to this sort of vanity-project work-for-hire, but at least he didn't insist on some absurd twist ending. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyJun 7, 2013
Despite the Smith family’s association with Scientology, which unmistakably informs this tale’s belief system (“Fear is a Choice”), as well as its shaky attempts at mythic patterning, it is in no way the laughable shambles that John Travolta’s infamous "Battlefield Earth" was. Read full review
40
EmpireKim NewmanJun 3, 2013
Prepare to cringe and snicker whenever the characters are talking, but gasp when Shyamalan just shows amazing stuff. Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensMay 31, 2013
In his defense, the kid is saddled with a task that even a more experienced actor might have trouble pulling off: He must carry an entire action movie on his slender shoulders, given little more to act opposite than a succession of green-screen predators. Even with his charismatic dad in his earpiece calling the shots, Jaden can’t turn himself into a movie star by sheer force of Will. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichMay 30, 2013
What undoes the film is its rather rancid parent-child sentimentality (a Shyamalan staple, admittedly) and a charisma-free performance from the younger Smith that suggests the apple has fallen very far from the tree. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 30, 2013
The jolts are of the jump-out-from-behind-the-door variety; you can see them coming from a long way off, too. Shyamalan seems to no longer have the confidence to let audiences figure things out or the patience to allow them to. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 30, 2013
This would be a difficult film even for the charismatic Papa Smith to carry. That he spends nearly the entire movie in a chair doesn't help matters. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMay 29, 2013
The disappointingly generic film, which strands a father and son on Earth a thousand years after a planet-wide evacuation, will leave genre audiences pining for the more Terra-centric conceits of "Oblivion," not to mention countless other future-set films that find novelty in making familiar surroundings threatening. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleLouis BlackMay 29, 2013
The film is repetitive and not as suspenseful at it tries to be. Often gorgeous, sometimes fascinating, it is ultimately unwieldy and unsurprising. It fails as a Smith-family project. Jaden Smith, who was fine in "The Karate Kid," is flat here. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChris CabinMay 30, 2013
The art of storytelling is both of distinct narrative interest and personal issue in the latest payload of calcified nonsense from one of modern cinema's oddest would-be auteurs. Read full review
38
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 30, 2013
An undemanding, childish adventure picture. Read full review
35
NPRMark JenkinsMay 31, 2013
A disastrous father-son endeavor about a calamitous father-son expedition, After Earth doesn't play to the strengths of any of its major participants. Read full review
33
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 30, 2013
Fans of either Smith will be sorely disappointed. The elder never before appeared this listless on screen, and the younger misplaced his unforced rapport with the camera that made the Karate Kid reboot so impressive. Only Shyamalan delivers what moviegoers expect from him, and that's a shame. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 3, 2013
Were Shyamalan and Smith deliberately invoking the terror — now omnipresent in urban African-American communities — of lethal asthma attacks in children? I’m not sure how I feel about something so real and so wrenching in the context of a Grade D (unfit for human habitation) sci-fi picture like After Earth. Read full review
30
The New York TimesManohla DargisMay 30, 2013
For the most part it is an uninteresting slog alleviated only by the occasional unintended laugh and moments of visual beauty. Mr. Shyamalan generally torpedoes his movies with overweening self-seriousness. Read full review
30
TimeRichard CorlissMay 30, 2013
Running, or stumbling, only 90 minutes, After Earth may lack the neck-swiveling awfulness of Shyamalan’s "The Last Airbender," but it quickly sinks in its logorrheic solemnity. The movie makes "Oblivion" seem as jolly a romp as "Spaceballs," and gives neither Shyamalan nor Smith much to smile about. Read full review
30
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlMay 30, 2013
Jaden is fine at running, jumping, fearful trembling, and affecting steely resolution. He doesn't yet have his father's charisma; perhaps to help him out, dad opted not to bring that charisma to the set. Read full review
30
VarietyScott FoundasMay 30, 2013
Shyamalan is clearly a director-for-hire here, his disinterest palpable from first frame to last. Nowhere in evidence is the gifted "Sixth Sense" director who once brought intricately crafted setpieces and cinematic sleight-of-hand to even the least of his own movies. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 31, 2013
The sad truth about After Earth is that not only is it difficult to find things it does well, but there are numerous examples of outright incompetence dotting the landscape. Read full review
25
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 30, 2013
You can’t blame Will Smith for wanting to give his son a leg up in the business. Maybe one day Jaden will have his father’s career — and his ability to carry a movie. For now, it’s a little premature to ask him to bear the weight of this soggy, waterlogged “Earth” on his skinny shoulders. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 30, 2013
The young Smith has energy, but not the acting chops. And he's no miracle worker. The burden of carrying this dull, lifeless movie is just too much. And it's hell on an audience. It's not a good sign when you sit there thinking – Make. It. Stop. Read full review
25
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 30, 2013
Surprise — this bad dream is for real. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 30, 2013
Quite simply, this is one of the worst films of 2013. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 30, 2013
Jaden is not ready for his solo spotlight, and the film is the same action over and over. Another bad movie from Shyamalan. Read full review
25
New York PostLou LumenickMay 29, 2013
Basically, this is Smith and his real-life son, Jaden (both affecting ridiculous mid-Atlantic accents) talking the audience to death for something like 90 minutes before the closing credits. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 7, 2013
He's done it again. M Night Shyamalan has done it again. Again. Done it. Again. He has given us another film for which the only appropriate expression is stammering, gibbering wonder that anyone can keep making such uncompromisingly terrible movies with such stamina and dedication. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 30, 2013
The script has no nuance, none. And when Shyamalan moves into the director's chair, the script problems are magnified. Everything is spelled out, underlined in red. Read full review
12
Film.comLaremy LegelMay 30, 2013
After Earth stupefies us with nonsense, such little thought and logic went into this idea that it can’t even be considered a rough draft, this is a movie almost daring an audience to emotionally detach throughout. For shame! Read full review
0
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 29, 2013
Summer 2013 has its first bomb, and sadly, it’s landed right on Will Smith. Read full review
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