After Earth

• Published in: Science fiction film and television 2015-04, Vol.8 (1), p.107
• Main Author: Hall, Stefan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Children; Computer & video games; Earth; Electronics industry; Evacuations & rescues; Howard, Bryce Dallas; Independence Day; Logic; Mass media; Motion pictures; Shyamalan, M Night; Sons; Television; Verbal aggression
• ISSN: 1754-3770; 1754-3789
• DOI: 10.3828/sfftv.2015.7

Unbreakable (US 2000), in which Philadelphia security guard David Dunn (Bruce Willis) discovers that he is a superhero with the help of his son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark); Signs (US 2002), in which former Episcopal priest Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) fends off an alien abduction with the help of his children, Morgan (Rory Culkin) and Bo (Abigail Breslin), and Graham's younger brother, Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix); The Village (US 2004), in which blind Iv y Elizabeth Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard) must venture through monstrous woods to find a cure for her stricken love interest; Lady in the Water (US 2006), in which handyman Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) helps Story (Bryce Dallas Howard), a water nymph, in her quest from the Blue World to the human one; The Happening (US/India/France 2008), in which Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), with a young girl Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez), travel across an America ravaged by plant-produced neurotoxins; and The Last Airbender (US 2010), based on the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender (US 2005-8), in which 12-year-old Aang (Noah Ringer), the only person on the planet able to 'bend', or manipulate, all four elements, is thrust into the midst of a planetary conflict. The bulk of the film's action focuses on how Kitai must learn to control his fear to surmount various threats, draw on his Ranger training to use special tools (an electrochromic, biomimetic skydiving flight suit and wrist-mounted computer) and weapons (notably a double-bladed cutlass), and confront the Ursa in a bid to secure the rescue beacon and save his dying father. After Earth is intended for a teenage (and largely male) audience who will be entranced with the special effects and ignore the superficial treatment of the science-fictional elements of space travel or advanced civilisations and not question the seemingly implausible changes to Earth's species and inexplicable environmental changes described as violent weather thermal shifts. At the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Sony Corporation used clips from After Earth to promote its new line of 4K televisions (Sony Pictures Releasing and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment handled the theatrical and home video releases of the film in several countries, including Germany and the USA).