After Earth Nominated For Six Razzie Awards
Before After Earth was released in May 2013, I was really excited to see the movie. Although M. Night Shyamalan’s track record as a director has been horrendous with past failures such as The Last Airbender, The Happening, and The Lady in the Water, I continue to be a big fan of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. The idea that M. Night Shyamalan was making a science fiction movie with Will Smith seemed very appealing to me. Of course, that was before I watched the movie. Let’s not mince words here: After Earth is a terrible, terrible movie!
It’s not surprising that it was nominated for six Golden Raspberry Awards in the 34th Annual Razzie Awards, including Worst Actor for Jaden Smith, Worst Supporting Actor for Will Smith, Worst Screen Combo for “Jaden Smith & Will Smith on Planet Nepotism,” Worst Screenplay, Worst Picture, and, finally, Worst Director for M. Night Shyamalan. This is Shyamalan’s fourth nomination for Worst Director, with the 43-year-old director previously “winning” two Razzies for The Lady in the Water and The Last Airbender.
After Earth is a horrible movie, but it’s unclear if it will go home with the Razzie Award. Grown Ups 2, The Lone Ranger, Movie 43, and A Madea Christmas are also nominated for Worst Picture of the year. Considering the field and quality of movies nominated, it’s surprising that Man of Steel or Star Trek Into Darkness weren’t nominated as well. Maybe it’s because those movies were high grossers and critics and general audiences were somewhat pleased with the experience, but both movies deserve a nomination in my mind.
Considering that After Earth is universally disdained and a box office failure, it won’t be surprising if M. Night Shyamalan doesn’t make a movie for a while. The director has lost a lot of good faith since he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director and Best Screenplay for The Sixth Sense in 1999. He’s made some of the worst big-budget movies for almost every major movie studio in Hollywood over the years, so you have to wonder if he’ll get a shot at making another one. In fact, Shyamalan is moving towards directing and producing new TV shows now, namely with the TV series Wayward Pines for Fox.
But let’s not put all the blame of After Earth‘s failures on M. Night Shyamalan shoulders. After all, he was just a hired gun on the project. After Earth was Will Smith’s brainchild, with the 45-year-old actor taking story and producing credits on the sci-fi movie. Smith’s career has been going downhill since the box office failure of the movie Seven Pounds in 2008. Although Men in Black 3 was moderately successful, the quality has diminished with every new film in the series. Maybe Will Smith should have taken the leading role in Django Unchained to give his career a jump-start.
Honestly, After Earth is seen as a way for Will Smith to give his less talented son Jaden a leg up in the movie business. Putting Jaden in the leading role of a major motion picture like After Earth was a bad idea. He doesn’t have a good screen presence, which really hurt the film since Jaden was the only character on screen for large portions of the film’s running time. After Earth should be seen as a cautionary tale for bad Hollywood nepotism.
Check out the complete list of the 34th Annual Razzie Awards nominations below:
WORST PICTURE
- After Earth
- Grown Ups 2
- The Lone Ranger
- A Madea Christmas
- Movie 43
WORST ACTOR
- Johnny Depp (The Lone Ranger)
- Ashton Kutcher (Jobs)
- Adam Sandler (Grown Ups 2)
- Jaden Smith (After Earth)
- Sylvester Stallone (Bullet to the Head, Escape Plan, Grudge Match)
WORST ACTRESS
- Halle Berry (Movie 43, The Call)
- Selena Gomez (Getaway)
- Lindsay Lohan (The Canyons)
- Tyler Perry (A Madea Christmas)
- Naomi Watts (Diana, Movie 43)
WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
- Lady Gaga (Machete Kills)
- Salma Hayek (Grown Ups 2)
- Katherine Heigl (The Big Wedding)
- Kim Kardashian (Tyler Perry’s Temptation)
- Lindsay Lohan (In-App-Propriate Comedy, Scary Movie 5)
WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
- Chris Brown (Battle of the Year)
- Larry the Cable Guy (A Madea Christmas)
- Taylor Lautner (Grown Ups 2)
- Will Smith (After Earth)
- Nick Swardson (A Haunted House, Grown Ups 2)
WORST DIRECTOR
- The 13 People Who Directed Movie 43
- Dennis Dugan (Grown Ups 2)
- Tyler Perry (A Madea Christmas, Temptation)
- M. Night Shyamalan (After Earth)
- Gore Verbinski (The Lone Ranger)
WORST SCREEN COMBO
- The Entire Cast of Grown Ups 2
- The Entire Cast of Movie 43
- Lindsay Lohan & Charlie Sheen (Scary Movie 5)
- Tyler Perry & EITHER Larry the Cable Guy OR That Worn-Out Wig & Dress (A Madea Christmas)
- Jaden Smith & Will Smith on Planet Nepotism (After Earth)
WORST SCREENPLAY
- After Earth: Screenplay by Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan, Story by Will Smith
- Grown Ups 2: Written by Fred Wolfe & Adam Sandler & Tim Herlihy
- The Lone Ranger: Screen Story & Screenplay by Ted Elliott, Justin Haythe & Terry Rosso
- A Madea Christmas: Written by Tyler Perry
- Movie 43: Written by 19 “Screenwriters”
WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL
- Grown Ups 2
- Hangover III
- The Lone Ranger
- Scary Movie 5
- Smurfs 2
