After Earth

In a previous blog I had talked about the new Star Trek movie “Into Darkness” and how it was one of the top four movies I was looking forward to the most this year.  But there was a fifth movie and that was “After Earth”.  Well me and the wife went to see it at the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it – even if we appear to be the only people who did!

Just be warned what follows contains SPOILERS and unusually for an Internet Blog – positive thoughts on M Night Shyamalan.

“After Earth” (AE in this blog) is set a thousand years in the future where Mankind has left Earth to move to a new star system after nearly destroying it.  Unfortunately there is an alien race called the S’krell who are blind but ‘see’ using the human fear against them.  The rangers corp battle them but it isn't until Cypher (Will Smith) learns to switch off his fear and defeat them without them knowing where he is – this is called ‘Ghosting’ in the movie and he trains others in this new technique.  His son Kitai (Jaden Smith) doesn't make the cut with the rangers so Cyper takes him on a mission for some father/son time but they crash land on Earth with Cypher badly injured leaving Kitai to get across to the tail end of the ship to send a distress signal.

What follows is a basic ‘coming of age’ story as Kitai battles with his own fear and possible cowardly tendencies (his sister was killed by a S’Krell when he was younger and he watched whilst hiding in a glass bowl) whilst having to deal with a frankly pushy father who doesn’t know who to be a dad – just a commander.  Real life father and son, Will and Jaden Smith are both fantastic in the movie.  Will Smith has none of his usual wisecracks and joking around – he is very serious playing the archetypal career military man, even expecting his own son to call him sir like he was one of his soldiers.  For Jaden this is very much his coming of age role as he carries the weight of the movie on his shoulders for long parts.  But this burden doesn’t get to him and he goes from cocky brat to a man ready to fight for his family and those he loves.

M Night Shyamalan has his critics (most of the human race!) and I've never really understood this.  He creates very original stories and yes, there are one of two plot-holes (‘Signs’ – why would an alien race that is allergic to water invade a planet made up of 90% water?!) but he can be the master of the great twist.  Which is probably his problem, he created one cinemas greatest twist with the ending of ‘The Sixth Sense’ and has never quite followed it up – but what filmmaker could?  ‘Unbreakable’ was a great superhero movie with the great Samuel L Jackson reveal at the end. But I can’t defend him for ‘The Happening’ – that was just awful and very dull!

But strangely M Night Shyamalan hasn’t included his trademark ‘big twist’ in the movie, focussing more on the journey Kitai makes.  He possibly missed a trick as a little tweak here and there, and we as the audience could have been shocked to find out the mysterious planet was Earth (this would have meant a name change!).  Admittedly this would be almost copying the twist at the end of the original ‘Planet of the Apes’ but could have been a great twist nonetheless. 

One review I read theorized that the whole movie was a Scientology advert with Will Smith and M Night Shyamalan pushing a Scientology agenda.  Regardless of whether this is true of not is immaterial as a lot of filmmakers have pushed their own political or religious agendas.  James Cameron clearly pushed his issues with the Iraq War and America’s foreign policy on cinema goers with the excellent ‘Avatar’.  Steven Spielberg did the same with the updated version of ‘War of the worlds’ and as far back as the middle of the 20^th Century C S Lewis included a lot of Christian references in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’  

Visually AE is superb and M Night Shyamalan uses theories based on what would happen is Mankind disappeared with the environment returning to how it was before mankind marked its stamp on it.  There is a shot showing Buffaloes back on the prairies and some animals have evolved – the big eagle is guaranteed to bring a tear to the eyes of the hardest of souls!

Another party of the movie I liked was the future history side and ideas that make logical sense.  Mankind has gotten so used to the slightly different atmosphere of its new home that the air of Earth is a little harder for them so need to take regular medication to help breath on the planet’s surface.    Kitai also remarked on feeling a little heavier on Earth – a little touch (different gravity strengths on different planets) that is often left out of movie science fiction but is taken for granted in its written form.

Finally, for me a good movie should course some kind of emotional response, whether it’s a tear at the end of a tragic story/feel good moment or joy for the hero/heroine.  The ending with Cypher saluting Kitai brought a nice man shaped tear to my face!  For those who haven’t seen it and read this blog, please go and watch it.  Don’t have any misgivings due to the director – just pretend it isn't one of his movies.  It deserves a chance and if you are a fan of science fiction, you really should give it a viewing.

RIP Iain M Banks

On Sunday the news science fiction fans had known would come, but were all hoping would be delayed, happened.  Iain M Banks sadly lost his battle with cancer.  Back in April he had announced he had inoperable gall cancer and much like his writing, he said with a dark humorous way that he had asked his partner “to do him the honor of being his widow”.

Now, I’m not going to claim to be his biggest fan; I’m not, having only really discovered him last year when I finally decided to give his ‘Culture’ books a go.  I was aware of him as a writer but I was a little scared to read him due to his big reputation for being very deep.  I am also a big Alastair Reynolds fan and in particular the way he blends real science theories into his narrative, which is usually a future history of mankind, whilst trying to keep within the confines of the universal laws of physics.  I was both wary but also fascinated by the concept of ‘The Culture’.  Wary, because I wasn't sure if I could enjoy science fiction based around a humanoid alien race that is out there in the galaxy without us knowing.  Fascinated by the idea of a Utopian society where nobody had to work and technology was extremely far advanced when compared to our own.  I was also drawn to the frankly, excellent covers - colorful images of far off worlds.   I know you should never judge a book by its cover, but they intrigued me further and I figured that I watch Star Trek, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica and none of them exactly follow the laws of physics with their FTL drives.

I purchased his first SF novel and the opening culture novel ‘Consider Phlebras’ last year and read it within a couple of weeks.  At first I found the going hard as I got used to his style of writing, the dark but sometimes witty musings, and the weird names.  But after a while I started to settle into the narrative and got drawn in.  The huge planet size orbital that is destroyed, or the gruesome scenes concerning the cannibals on the beach have stuck in my mind ever since.  By the end I wanted more.  The flawed and tragic lead characters were brilliantly written and one thing I liked about the culture was that they were all separate stories, so I wasn't tied to a continuing story and could dip in and out of them as and when I wanted.

After a few months, I dipped back in and read his second ‘culture’ novel ‘Player of games’.  I found this a little easier to get immersed into.  It was a simpler narrative featuring, again, on the surface a very talented character, who showed basic human like flaws and imperfections as he tried to have his greatest victory.  Much like his previous book, Banks inserted some truly gruesome scenes and ideas – the games in the book don’t just have a winner and a loser, competitors ‘bet’ using body parts to add extra spice to proceedings.  This book also introduced the idea of The Culture interfering in other more basic societies/empires, a recurring theme in the books.

Finally last Christmas, having received all the books on the list from my mum and her partner, I read ‘Use of Weapons’ his 3^rd ‘Culture’ novel.  This introduced me to his infamous ‘multi-narrative’ style of writing.  Two narratives ran through the novel, alternating between chapters with one the main current story ark of the lead character, with the other narrative looking at his previous missions – but in reverse order.  Looking back I should have left this book until after I had gotten over a bout of sinusitis as the banging pain between my eyes made me struggle with the confusing narrative structure!  Ultimately I believe it was a good book, but I need to re-read it when I can give it my 100% concentration, then I think I will enjoy it more.

During this time I learnt a bit more about his non SF output under his own name of Iain Banks (adding the M for his SF work is a great touch).  A friend from work describes ‘The Bridge’ as his all time favourite book but hasn't tried his SF work.  Its on my list to read, but it would mean taking a break from reading SF, but there is so much I need and want to read!  But some of this SF does include more of his Culture novels.

My final thoughts though concern one part of his background I love, and one I have stolen from him for my own writing quest.  Long before he even had work published, he described himself as a writer, even to the point he put writer as his occupation when applying for a passport.  I love this optimism and use it on my Twitter profile (@morg007 for those wanting to follow me).  In some ways that is my tribute to him, because if I’m even as tenth as good a writer as he is, I will be a happy man.

RIP Iain M Banks