The most noticeable stylistic feature of After Earth, at least according to the views I’ve encountered, is the dialect that these futuristic humans speak in. At least, I assume it’s a type of dialect. They could just be talking weird. But most seem to conclude that it’s meant to signify a futuristic style of speaking. A kind of amalgamation of Alabama with Oxford, it would seem. Never mind the fact that most of the vocabulary can’t change too much because we need to be able to understand what they’re saying.
It’s maybe a minor quibble, but it’s another one of those noticeable little things draws attention away from the movie’s real strengths in its core narrative. Instead of focusing on the main thrust of what Kitai and Cypher and saying to each other, it’s easy to get distracted by the way they’re saying things, even well into the film when we should be used to the dialect, perhaps because it seems like they slip in and out of the “weird” talking depending on the level of intensity in a scene. It leads me to think that Shyamalan is still fairly strong with big picture arcs, but when it comes to these details he can’t quite get a handle on solidifying a tightly bound product. It may seem like nitpicking but these parts add up to a whole that leaves me and plenty of others with an uneasiness toward these more awkward elements.
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Published: Jun 16, 2013 08:18 pm