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
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
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