As good as most sci-fis

After Earth (12a)
Running time 100 minutes
Rating:***
We all know that Will Smith can’t help his face, but it’s difficult to watch him play a serious role without half-thinking that he’s going to crack a joke any minute.
He’d probably be well offended by such a thought, but he did start out as a stand-up comic and star of a TV comedy show so it’s his own fault that when he plays a steely-eyed missile man in After Earth we don’t quite believe all that rough and gruff stuff.
Still, ably supported by his almost grown-up son Jaden, Smith makes a passable attempt, enough to convince everyone – apart from some dull-eyed film critics, who have panned said film for having no story.
Which is unfair, because having watched all 100 minutes of the latest sci-fi film that talks about the end of Earth and Mankind (Tom Cruise in Oblivion being the most recent), I can report that it does have a story and if you like sci-fi films, this is as good as most.
Smith plays General Cypher Raige (where do they get these names?), who leads a troop of soldiers fighting off nasty insect-like creatures that inhabit Nova Prime, the new world that Earth’s people went to in the far future after they had finished spoiling their home planet.
These creatures kill mankind by detecting the smell of fear so the human soldiers are trained to be fearless and therefore invisible to the insects. Young Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith), the general’s son, is trying to be a soldier is torn by the death of his big sister – killed by an insect.
The story is about young Kitai’s journey into manhood and soldierhood when the father and son are the only survivors of a space flight that crashes on a hostile planet that they discover is Earth.
The General is injured and Kitai has to travel overland to find a lost beacon that will call for rescue – and has to face innumerable dangers on the way, including an escaped insect that was on board the flight for soldier training purposes.
It’s all about growing up, facing your fears if you are a young son, and recognising you need emotions if you are a father.
This is not the first time the Smiths have appeared together. Jaden was much smaller when he appeared as the young son of a struggling single father in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006).
That film received an Oscar nomination, whereas After Earth almost certainly won’t but critics rubbishing it mercilessly are going too far.
If you are a fan of the genre and/ or Will Smith, this is good entertainment. Just wait to see how Brad Pitt copes with vampires.