Tonight’s MTV Movie Awards has showcased quite a few premiere TV spots from films like Iron Man 3, The Hunger Games and Man of Steel. And so what do viewers get from the next M. Night Shyamalan film? Well, After Earth has offered up a 30-second spot completely edited from the second trailer... and they forgot to keep it exciting.
To be fair, the most recent trailer for the sci-fi film definitely inspired feelings of awe-soaked excitement for moments at a time, though cynicism always came hurtling back into my brain as I was watching. The story seems like it will engage audiences enough, pitting General Cypher Raige (Will Smith) and his son Kitai (Jaden Smith) against an Earth where humanity was mostly wiped out in the previous millennium. After crash-landing on the planet, they must survive against the wilderness and the threatening predators surrounding them, all while wearing suits that give them pseudo-wings that allow them to glide through the air. Half of my worry on this adventure would be ripping my suit to the point where my wings wouldn’t work.
And we get a taste of those wings in this TV spot, and we see a piece of a startling accident where father gets torn away from son, though it isn’t really given its due time to sink in properly. Most importantly, though, they had to include the vaguely epic-sounding exchange between Cypher and Kitai.
“Do you know where we are?”“No, sir.”“This is Earth.”
Where will you be on June 7 when After Earth hits theaters? In a theater part of Earth or some other place? Check out the full trailer below and think about it...and then think about The Happening.
