Director M. Night Shyamalan, whose name is conspicuously missing from all of the film’s marketing materials, gets blasted by Lou, too. “Eleven years and several progressively more dreadful movies after ‘Signs,’ director M. Night Shyamalan would be lucky to get a gig directing traffic,” he wrote. Meanwhile, Dustin Putnam says the film “bears the mark of a work-for-hire who has all but given up.”
Really, several critics are having a field day with this one, taking off the gloves for what looks to be the summer movie season’s first official disaster.
“The level to which ‘After Earth’ is a catastrophe is amazing,” wrote Laremy Lagel of Film.com, saying that the film is “terrible right from the outset, and woe be upon the person who holds out hope that it will get better after the initial wobbly start.”
Jaden and Justin, friends indeed (Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty)
Colin Covert of the Minneapolis StarTribune digs even deeper by mentioning the film in the same sentence as the man whom many consider to be the Worst Director of All Time. “‘After Earth'” is a work of hubris magnified by multiple miscalculations, the kind of film that would cause Ed Wood to excuse himself and skulk to the exit.”