You’d think director M. Night Shyamalan would lay off the environmental fear mongering after audiences laughed his eco-thriller The Happening off the screen.
That film had star Mark Wahlberg on the run from a killer gust of wind. Really.
Shyamalan is at it again, albeit in less ludicrous fashion, via his latest project After Earth. The sci-fi film is set in the future, a time when our planet is no longer safe for humans. The film’s crowded prologue shows some of the reasons why, including war and those pesky smokestacks that pump out pollution into the once-pure sky.
It’s one of the laziest new movie tropes in the post apocalyptic genre. We’ve wrecked the Earth with our eco-ignorance, and now we’re paying the price. It’s a wonder WALL*E doesn’t roll by at some point singing songs from Hello, Dolly!
Later in the film, Shyamalan offers a less obvious nod to the climate change crowd. When the film’s heroes, played by Will Smith and his plucky son Jaden, crash land on this unfriendly Earth they face rapidly changing temperatures. Jaden Smith’s character must seek out “hot spots” on the planet in order to survive the sudden chills that happen at night.
It’s like climate change on a daily basis.
Shyamalan isn’t alone in inserting Al Gore-approved messages into his movies. But his alarming decline as a storyteller makes him less able to distract audiences rolling their eyes at more green preaching.