After Earth

Will and Jaden Smith star here as father-and-son astronauts who crash-land on Earth 1,000 years after humanity has left the planet and must overcome the dangers of the now hostile terrain - as well as an alien predator that has escaped from their spaceship. Smith Sr wrote the story as the first part of a possible trilogy (no chance!), and it's also clearly intended to elevate his son to star status. However, the plodding plot is told in unimaginative broad strokes, while Smith Jr's inexperience shows in the stilted delivery of his dialogue. Tapping a down-on-his-luck M Night Shyamalan (who at the time was still living off the early promise of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable) to direct was a decent act of charity by Smith, but apart from the odd effective sequence, this is nothing but a by-the-numbers survival story peddling contrived emotion, glittering sets and repetitive CGI peril.