Badmovies.org Forum

I haven't seen it. Everyone says it sucks. Can anyone here give me their opinion?

I have also read some reviews that rip it apart. Not only for it's entertainment value (or lack thereof), but because it is apparently awash with Scientology references. I smell another Battlefield Earth.

If Ron Hubbard's words help these people live better lives, then more power to them. Why they feel compelled to push it on the rest of us is disturbing. Live your own life, and we'll live ours.

Scientology isn't really a faith, it's a profit center. The more followers the more the "church" gets.

I may get in trouble for saying this, but I think that any belief system based on a falsehood is ultimately going to break down.

I'll go one step further and add that it is also merely a "club for elites". It's as though Hollywood desired religion, but was certainly not going to stoop to the level of we regular folk and adopt something like Christianity. Nope... they just made up their own.

I've read lots of bad reviews of "After Earth," but this is the first I've heard of any connection to Scientology.  

It seems to me like it was just a vanity project for Will Smith and his kid, almost like the kid's birthday was coming up so Will said, "My son needs another hit movie, I'm going to make him one".... and then it failed miserably.

Maybe he should've hired someone other than M. Night to direct it.

Is it just me or does every movie Big Willie is in seem like a vanity project?

Perhaps I should've phrased that, "yet another vanity project" :)

The term "vanity project" makes me suspect you have read The Onion's av club review.

I tried reading Dianetics when I was a kid. I couldn't get past the first chapter. I kept having to stop & look up some fancy $5 word in the glossary, then start over. It just seemed like a bunch of words thrown together for the super smart college been to crowd.
I felt insulted, & have never understood the hype.

I didn't, but Stephen Whitty (film critic for the Newark Star Ledger) also used the term in his review of the movie.

M. Night Shama-lama-ding-dong

That's all you need to know.  Carry on.

As already mentioned, After Earth has been criticized for it's connection to Scientology, and for Will Smith boosting his son's career. It's fabricated crap like this that suck the fun out of mindless big budged summer movies. Shama-lama-ding-dong was hired as a shemp, obviously.

I thought and think the movie looks pretty interesting. I have not a single clue how After Earth is linked to Scientology. I didn't know of any links back when I saw Battlefield Earth and I enjoyed that movie as a big, dumb scifi film. I'll be my own judge here as, in most of my own experiences, critics know bullspit when it comes to science fiction.

The cinematography looks stylish and I like the production designs and SPX.

I don't know too much about scientology but was a decent [but not great] sci fi.  Pretty much played out how I thought it would: Crash on a planet, kid has to prove himself in trying times, almost fails but then finds the courage to succeed.  Father and son become closer because of it.

Overall it had a few decent set pieces but I thought the whole 'the aliens smell your fear' and the big knife fighting thing was pretty stupid. [Its called guns and self contained suits!]

But yeah this was clearly a movie for Will Smith and his son.  Its like Smith Snr decided that this year he'd buy a starring role in a movie for his son for christmas.

Not horrible, but I wouldn't say it was anything higher than a 6/10 and that's only if I'm being generous.