There were plenty of weird little details in M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth, from the “futuristic” accents to the fact that action movie star Will Smith is bound to a seat for pretty much the entire film to everything Jaden Smith says and does. But for all the aspects that didn’t work for me (some people dug it—power to them), two things did: the whole premise of this kid essentially losing his father and having to support himself and overcome his fears, and then the name of the family—Raige.
On one level the names are awkward, possibly even ridiculous. And that’s not even considering the famous Star Wars progressive logic stating that fear leads to anger and anger to hate, and these characters who are supposed to be overcoming fear carry with them a surname that sounds like rage. I’m sure there’s a way to satisfactorily rationalize that. But it’s the name Kitai that Jaden Smith is assigned, and Will Smith’s repeated use of the name in addressing his son and the accent he says it with, that almost sums up the movie. It’s an interesting premise, and probably works on paper, but something about the way it looks and sounds just feels slightly off. Like, more than it was probably intended to. The name Cypher Raige seems cooler, maybe because it reminds me of the dude from The Matrix, maybe because it sounds like he should be a pro wrestler.
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