Columbia Pictures, Overbrook Entertainment, Blinding Edge Pictures,
Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Isabelle Fuhrman, Kristofer Hivju, Gabriel Caste, Zoë Kravitz, Sophie Okonedo, David Denman, Sacha Dhawan, Lincoln Lewis
Cypher Raige (Will Smith) is the supreme fighter of the universe as we learn in this futuristic vision of space after the humans have destroyed Earth. Earth turned really bad, and everything evolved towards killing humans, so they all moved off the Earth to a distant location. But the aliens are looking to seek out the humans and destroy them, and they have a really evil creation in the blind, but keen smelling Ursa who can find humans by the smell of the pheromones that we give off when we’re afraid. Cypher has a son Kitai, who is estranged from his Dad because his Dad has been off saving the universe and leaving him alone. He feels a lot of guilt for an event that happened, and hasn’t learned how to defeat his fear. He is trying to be a soldier like his father, but so far has failed to pass the final test. On a space journey Cypher and Kitai are marooned on an evil planet, Cypher is unable to walk, and Kitai must go out for help. If he fails, they both will die. But great test await him on the multi-day journey which will test his manhood.
Well, what a predicament. I have to admit, with the bad reviews for this film, and the sudden demise from the big screen, I did not have an opportunity to view this in the theater. Now it’s available on DVD, and I just had to watch it, but I was prepared for the worst. This movie has a lot going for it, and yet, it has some huge problems that it can’t seem to overcome. I’ve always been a Night Shaymalan fan, and Will’s got the clout to get him as the director of this thing. So the camera placement, frightening scenes, and sudden surprise twists are really good. Night is a genius director. The story is excellent. According to the credits, Will wrote the story, and it’s awesome. It’s one of the best Science Fiction stories I’ve seen in a long time. But….though Will has carried some great films with his humor and his acting ability, he has nothing much to do in this movie. He sits in a chair, grunts, passes out most of the time, and yells Kitai endlessly over some futuristic communication device. Will developed this story for no other purpose than for Jaden who can’t act worth a damn. Just because you’re descended from a couple decent actors, doesn’t mean you’ll get the talent automatically, and he didn’t. I think he is even worse in this movie than he was in the “Kung Fu Kid” he made some years ago. That’s because he has no one else in this film to work with, and it’s a soliloquy, basically a one man show. And he’s not the man to carry that off, although to be fair, that’s a tall order for any kid. But the beginning of the movie is going to lose you when Jaden does his “narrator” piece to tell you all the background of the story. He can barely read, and it is truly awful. And his acting doesn’t get any better when they get to the action parts. What a waste of an excellent story.
So I feel the reason this film flopped is directly on Will’s back, as this is his pony show for his kids. Will needs a variety show or something so he can pull his kids out and show them off once in a while, but this narcissistic thing of writing whole movies for kids is going to destroy any of the credibility that Will ever built up. So if you’re an M. Night fan, and if you love sci-fi, and if you want to see a beautifully filmed space adventure, this is ok to put in your queue to watch. But if you have to pay $3.50 to go out and rent it, it’s not worth $3.50 in my opinion. If Will can write like this, then perhaps he needs to write for someone else than his own kids. Sorry Will, but you wasted a great opportunity here.
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