The plot is simple. The movie opens to clips of a disaster struck earth; flooding and fires consume our modern civilization. Jaden smith then explains that 1000 years ago human kind had to abandon a dying Earth and move to a new planet. The catch is that the entire human race moved to a planet which they were unaware was occupied by an alien race which kills humans. Here's where the entire plot of the movie takes its first painful turn. The aliens are blind, but can smell pheromones, which are secreted with sweat. In this case, sweat caused only by fear. So, we learn that Will Smith, Jaden's father in the movie, is the hero of human kind because he can "ghost" meaning he has no fear and therefore is invisible to the aliens.
Predictably, they crash land on Earth and Jaden has to overcome his fears to save him and his injured father. And naturally, one of the blind aliens was in a cage on the ship and is now loose in the same jungle as our hero. A beacon to send an SOS message into space is located with the alien at the tail end of the ship, 100 kilometers away. SPOILER ALERT: The film ends exactly you expect it to from this information.
So this movie sucked, a lot, but well beyond the plot. Jaden, winner of worst lead actor, embarked on his journey and was meant to significantly mature. He suffered from fearful flashes of his sister's death, which he was five at the time of but somehow feels responsible for. His character was extremely fearful including when he encounters the alien, and only survives by a sudden realization that he has no fear.
Cinematographically, this film was average! A huge success compared to the standard it set for itself, the shots felt very natural and were extremely easy to follow. The issue was that in the close ups both Smiths maintained a pained attempt at discomfort and hidden emotion, but the emotion being hidden was irrelevant; they just made weird, sad pouts (seen below).
The lighting and sound in the film were both just ok. The lighting was natural but nothing interesting ever happened. The sound was fine, but failed to elicit the emotion it was meant to. The soundscape never built as strongly as it was meant to in moments of intensity and never achieved a feeling of peace when it was needed. This resulted in Jaden seeming like a whining brat and Will seeming like a horrible father even through the closing credits. I found myself cheering against Jaden in multiple situations.
All together, this movie made itself extremely easy to hate. Poor writing and acting by Will Smith and even worse acting by his son, this movie was clearly made largely in front of a green screen and was boring to sit through. It shows why actors shouldn't be allowed to write and produce movies just because they're famous, let alone starring their own children.
After Earth earns a generous 1/5 Planet Earths.
