AFTER EARTH MOVIE REVIEW

Shyamalan’s project takes place one thousand years after humanity has evacuated Earth, as a legendary warrior (Will Smith) and his inexperienced son (Jaden Smith) crash-land on the planet surface – forcing the latter to prove himself and seek help for his injured father, by exploring a mysterious world populated by lifeforms which have evolved to protect themselves from the human race.
After Earth marks the first occasion where Shyamalan did not direct his own script; he instead used an original screenplay written by Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli) and subsequently revised by Oscar-winner Stephen Gaghan (Traffic, Candy Store). In addition to The Smiths (the former Fresh Prince and son, not the band), the cast includes Zoë Kravitz (X-Men: First Class), Oscar-nominee Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) and Isabelle Fuhrman (The Hunger Games).

This second After Earth preview expands on the previous teaser by diving further into the father-son relationship, which serves as the core of Shyamalan’s sci-fi flick – on both the surface and a deeper thematic level, in keeping with the filmmaker’s traditional approach of using popcorn movies to explore heady philosophical ideas (to a fault, in his recent efforts). So far, though, Shyamalan seems to have brought his storytelling A-game to the table.

Meanwhile, the film’s vision of a long-abandoned Earth populated by creatures and flora stand apart as something evocative and relatively unique, even given certain similarities to recent sci-fi fare like Avatar. Could this indeed be the director’s long awaited return to form, after films like The Happening and The Last Airbender? Personally, I hope so, but I’m not willing to lay down money on that bet just yet.

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After Earth opens in U.S. theaters on June 7th, 2013.

PHANTOM MOVIE REVIEW

The first superhero ever, created by Lee Falk in 1936, gets another shot at movie stardom 60 years after achieving fame in comics and serials. Billy Zane stars as Kit Walker, who discovers that he's the 21st in a line of purple-clad African superheroes known as "The Phantom" or, to superstitious Bengalla Island natives, "the Ghost Who Walks." When he's not fighting the evil Singh Brotherhood with his faithful wolf Devil and white horse Hero, the Phantom lives in the hidden Skull Cave. Kit discovers that Xander Drax (Treat Williams), a slimy industrialist, is plotting to take over the world by uniting the three long lost magical Skulls of Touganda. So he travels to New York, where he finds allies in crusading newspaper publisher Dave (Bill Smitrovich) and his niece, Diana (Kristy Swanson), who's also Kit's ex-girlfriend. Kit and Diana tackle Drax's forces, including the conflicted Sala (Catherine Zeta-Jones), in a quest for the Skulls that brings both sides back to Bengalla for a showdown. The Phantom's mixture of elaborate stunts with liberal doses of tongue-in-cheek humor was characteristic of screenwriter Jeffrey Boam, whose previous films included Innerspace (1987) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989