You have to hand it to M. Night Shyamalan. For
a filmmaker most known for forcing unearned, out-of-left field—some may say
asinine—twists into every movie at inopportune moments, he certainly resisted
that urge with his new sci-fi adventure After Earth. It
couldn't have been easy for him, and there are times in the film when you, and
the entire audience, wait for that holy-shit-it-was-all-a-dream moment, a
moment that thankfully never materializes. There are a few groaners, but the
closest thing to a twist is nothing more than a poor decision in the writing
process that bestows way too much empathetic power on a giant bird.
