Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Oct. 8, 2013
Price: DVD $30.99, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $35.99
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Will Smith (Men in Black 3) and son Jaden Smith (The Karate Kid) star together again in the science-fiction movie After Earth.
Directed and co-written by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) based on a story by Will, the film follows father and son Cypher Raige (Will) and Kitai Raige (Jaden), 1,000 years after Earth has been abandoned and quarantined as an unsafe place for humans. When Cypher and Kitai go on a routine mission, they accidentally crash-land on Earth. Cypher is injured and Kitai must go on a dangerous journey to get help.
Rated PG-13, After Earth also stars Sophie Okonedo (The Secret Life of Bees) and Zoe Kravitz (X-Men: First Class), daughter of Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet.
Also co-written by Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli), the movie grossed $60 million in theaters, despite appalling reviews from critics. Moviegoers liked After Earth better, however, giving the film a still not great 42% approval, compared to only 11% from critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Both the DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo contain a bunch of special features:
- featurette “A Father’s Legacy” with Will and Jaden off screen
- on-location featurette “1,000 Years in 300 Seconds” with the cast
- featurette “The Nature of the Future,” a look at the landscapes and creatures of the movie
- and the XPRIZE After Earth Robotics Challenge winning video, from the global competition where teams from around the world submitted proposals to address ways of promoting a more sustainable way of living and the steps they would take to use an unmanned rover to assess whether Nova Prime, a potential new home for mankind, is inhabitable.
The Blu-ray also offers these exclusive extras:
- new version of the film’s opening sequence
- featurette “Building a World,” about the creation of the After Earth universe
- featurette “Pre-Visualizing the Future,” showing a next-generation approach to action scenes
- featurette “The Animatics of After Earth,” with storyboards and animatics
- and a downloadable digital copy via UltraViolet.
Here’s the movie’s trailer:
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If Shayalaman declines a director’s commentary, I recommend that Will and Jaden Smith add a commentary to provide added value for the secondary market who resisted the movie in theaters and were discouraged by bad word-of-mouth.
Also, I would recommend inserting additional scenes, if available, of Sophie Okonedo and Zoe Kravitz to round out the family life and provide balance for Jaden so he doesn’t carry the entire movie on his shoulders.