After Earth -- M. Night Shyamalan's latest

Oblivion, Elysium and now After Earth...2013 is ruined earth year at the movies apparently.
 
Even the trailer has a twist! ...assuming you didn't know the title...

Trailer looks promising (somewhat), but the director does not. How does he keep getting work!?!?
 
Jon Starr said:
Even the trailer has a twist! ...assuming you didn't know the title...

Trailer looks promising (somewhat), but the director does not. How does he keep getting work!?!?
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Because his movies keep making a lot of money. With a worldwide unadjusted gross of 2 Billion despite bad reviews means they'll keep giving him money. Even The Happening made $164mil worldwide lol.
 
Yeah, well with The Happening the estimated production budget was $60M. It earned $160M in the foreign and domestic box office, so take home from that is around $80M and it has done $20M in DVD sales so far. I don't know what percentage of the DVD numbers trickles back to the production (anyone know that formula?).

So they did $180M in business but only made around $20M + some of the DVD money after costs.

The Last Airbender made even less when you factor in the $150M budget.
 
Sixth Sense blew me away but hasn't stood up to repeated viewing past the second time. Unbreakable sucked but conversely got better over repeated viewings to become my favourite of his. I enjoyed the low key nature of Signs and it has enough good scenes (like the foil hats) that just work for me everytime. The Village annoyed me but mainly because I'm well read in the genre and can be pretentious about the fact. I'd read that story too many times, knew the twist seconds into the first trailer. GF loved it. Since then it's been very downhill, his films haven't appealed too much. Didn't know he was responsible for Airbender but I was never going to watch that. The fairytale one was a squandered opportunity, some cool ideas and characters (really liked the guy with one big arm) and otherworldly atmosphere of the setting but even the always watchable Paul Giamatti, he didn't pull it together. It seems like laziness because he has a great feel for atmosphere. He has a lot of good ideas but doesn't seem to follow through on them and is too reliant on the twist that made him famous. He has seemed to put progressively less craft into his projects with success. It's a pity because I believe he could do a lot better if he wanted to. The simple fact that this has Will Smith in this one suggests that (the kind of director he's shown himself to be) will make it a paint by numbers affair playing off Will Smith doing his thing. I hope otherwise.
 
As much as I dislike his work in general, this one has potential. Mostly because he didn't write it. He re-wrote it, and hopefully didn't change much. There's a reason Shyamalan's name isn't being pushed in the trailer.

I will absolutely be seeing this in theaters, but mostly because I recognize the woods I grew up in and it's exciting to see such a big name capturing those locations. Although I am a bit upset that I wasn't able to get hired for it, since it would have been a nice time to visit family and get paid. But my fingers are crossed for a good film.
 
Egg Born Son said:
Sixth Sense blew me away but hasn't stood up to repeated viewing past the second time. Unbreakable sucked but conversely got better over repeated viewings to become my favourite of his. I enjoyed the low key nature of Signs and it has enough good scenes (like the foil hats) that just work for me everytime. The Village annoyed me but mainly because I'm well read in the genre and can be pretentious about the fact. I'd read that story too many times, knew the twist seconds into the first trailer. GF loved it. Since then it's been very downhill, his films haven't appealed too much. Didn't know he was responsible for Airbender but I was never going to watch that. The fairytale one was a squandered opportunity, some cool ideas and characters (really liked the guy with one big arm) and otherworldly atmosphere of the setting but even the always watchable Paul Giamatti, he didn't pull it together. It seems like laziness because he has a great feel for atmosphere. He has a lot of good ideas but doesn't seem to follow through on them and is too reliant on the twist that made him famous. He has seemed to put progressively less craft into his projects with success. It's a pity because I believe he could do a lot better if he wanted to. The simple fact that this has Will Smith in this one suggests that (the kind of director he's shown himself to be) will make it a paint by numbers affair playing off Will Smith doing his thing. I hope otherwise.
Click to expand...

If you look at Signs as if it is about demons and not aliens, it is much better.
 
I'm actually of the opinion that Shyamalan is a decent director, but that his writing has gone downhill. I do believe Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs are all good films. Unfortunately his more recent films have been piles of poo, but I still think the guy has some talent in him. I'm hoping this can be a turn around for his career. And the fact that he didn't write the script should be seen as a hopeful sign.

As for the trailer itself, I will admit it looks a bit too action oriented for what I was hoping for, but this is obviously only a first trailer. I just hope there is legitimate tension in the film and it's not just a Jaden Smith as kickass action hero vehicle.
 
Interesting thread on reddit about this, do some searching for 'after earth' in r/movies and you'll find it.

Not going to link for obvious reason
 
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