After Earth

A millennium in the future, two space rangers, a father (Will Smith) and son (Jaden Smith), crash-land on Earth, and the boy must trek 60 miles to dispatch a distress signal. The latest “hostile Earth” sci-fi epic is an OK boy's adventure—or would be if director M. Night Shyamalan and co-writer Gary Whitta (from a story concocted by the senior Smith as a star vehicle for his son) didn't present it with such an air of lugubrious solemnity. It's handsomely mounted, well-designed and suspenseful, but not a lot of fun, more ordeal than adventure. Dad Will takes a backseat to son Jaden, who discharges his heroic duties, well, dutifully. Sophie Okonedo appears as wife and mother (respectively) to the two, with Zoe Isabella Kravitz showing up in flashbacks as the sister whose death haunts both father and son.