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JulyDiaz

Episode 63.5 — Minisode 63.5

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I think the most egregious part of Will's nepotism is that his own character shows no emotion until literally the last scene in a 90 minute screen time - meaning in a movie that is basically a 2-hander, Jaden is left to put across ALL of the emotional complications in the father-son relationship.

 

Not only did he make Jaden carry every important scene, but also put him in the sole position to get the gravity of the whole story across to the audience. But let's just assume that Will is totally ignorant of his son's pisspoor acting ability. M Night certainly was not - and chose to just go along with the plan to make a payday, rather than be honest with his star.

 

The result is a 14-year-old kid gets trashed by every major film critic in the world.

 

To be fair though, I'm not sure M. Night knows, atleast based on his last few movies, what the difference between good and bad acting is. I've never been a big Marky Mark fan, but in the right hands he can be a good enough actor, yet his performance in The Happening was as bad a performance as you can give.

 

So even though I don't think Jaden is a good actor, I seem to be the only person who didn't enjoy his performance in The Karate Kid, I think M. Night had a lot to do with his shitty performance in After Earth.

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To be fair though, I'm not sure M. Night knows, atleast based on his last few movies, what the difference between good and bad acting is. I've never been a big Marky Mark fan, but in the right hands he can be a good enough actor, yet his performance in The Happening was as bad a performance as you can give.

 

So even though I don't think Jaden is a good actor, I seem to be the only person who didn't enjoy his performance in The Karate Kid, I think M. Night had a lot to do with his shitty performance in After Earth.

 

I know M Night is a pretty shitty director, but there's no way that he didn't realize Jaden was tanking this movie. I feel bad criticize the kid, but the truth is his acting in this film wouldn't cut it an elementary school play.

 

But I do think it's fair to say that M Night hankered both Jaden and Will by making them do those ridiculous accents - that they use and then drop out of several times during the film.

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You guys, the conspiracy here is OBVIOUSLY a podcast rivalry between Sklarbro Country and HDTGM, since Mark Wahlberg makes his weekly calls to the latter, the Sklars are pulling their twin strings to prevent anyone at Earworlf from rustling any of Marky Mark's well-oiled pectoral feathers.

 

I think we should commission Jesse Ventura to investigate.

 

As for Will Smith, I agree that I Am Legend was good...but that came out six years ago. And I think that's a big part of the problem. When you only make a movie once a year or less (this is only his 4th movie since then), I think there's a reasonable expectation of that selectivity (which can be less favorably termed as arrogance/elitism/whatever) leading to quality; in his case, it's not happening. Being that confident and consistently putting out good stuff can be appealing, and at least deserves respect. Being unapologetically schlocky/populist/whatever (think Rock or Diesel) can also be appealing. Being really confident and putting out a mix of mediocrity and crap is really unappealing.

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I think the most egregious part of Will's nepotism is that his own character shows no emotion until literally the last scene in a 90 minute screen time - meaning in a movie that is basically a 2-hander, Jaden is left to put across ALL of the emotional complications in the father-son relationship.

 

Not only did he make Jaden carry every important scene, but also put him in the sole position to get the gravity of the whole story across to the audience. But let's just assume that Will is totally ignorant of his son's pisspoor acting ability. M Night certainly was not - and chose to just go along with the plan to make a payday, rather than be honest with his star.

 

The result is a 14-year-old kid gets trashed by every major film critic in the world.

 

I think M. Night was doing this as the payday since most studios are wary to touch him with a 10 ft pole now. This was Will Smith through and through, I feel he was either going to go with a director with little credibility left after numerous bombs, M. Night or Renny Harlin come to mind, or he was going to pick a director who's first movie it would be. Either way he could push them around to get his desired results, no matter how shitty they are.

 

As for his kid getting trashed by critics, that is the risk you run by putting oneself in the spotlight like that. You better Marlon Fucking Brando if you're going to be spoonfed the lead in a major summer release or act the way that you do in public, otherwise you are giving more reason to be ripped apart by critics. It's why I admire a guy like Harrison Ford who for the most part, stays out of the public eye unless doing publicity for his films, and you never see him complaining about being harassed by paparazzi since he doesn't go to places that are surrounded by them to get free press. Yet you have Jaden Smith wearing an iron man costume out in public, attached at his dad's hip, or doing something else completely douchey, add to the fact that he's a terrible actor, so he becomes the perfect target. The only thing missing is him wearing Ed Hardy and hanging out with Justin Bieber.

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Also keep in mind Will Smith not only produced this, but gets a 'story by' credit. I have a feeling he's more to blame here than M Night, which might explain why it's only boring bad and not boy howdy bad.

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Oh yeah, like I said this was his pet project in order to make his son the next "Mr. Summer Blockbuster." I honestly believe he thought this would be a passing of the torch movie where he could ease back further from acting while allowing his kid to take the reigns as acting's next big thing.

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Haha, what? Sucker Punch has a cult following where? In my butt?

 

I am not sure how deep it goes, like if there are midnight showings or anything but I have seen a lot of pictures of Sucker Punch themed cosplay costumes. It may not go any further than just an apreciation for the costumes and their simultaneous danger, sexuality and innocence, but it's there.

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That's a good point about there originally going to be Airbender sequels and I agree with you for the most part, but I still think there could be an After Earth 2. Because Will's production company produced it and because of how brutal the critics have been towards the film and his son, I think his ego is too big to not want to prove everyone wrong. And he certainly has the money and connections to do a sequel if he really wants to, as long as it performs as well overseas as I think it will.

 

If they make an After Earth 2, then the lesson will be that they should have cast Jaden in the lead for Airbender.

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Apparently this movie is crazy about Scientology. I read this great write up of it on a message board. I'm gonna see if he posted it on a blog yet. It's a long read, but it's good.

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Yeah, I was gonna say that Hubbard isn't known to be the most original author, so it wouldn't be surprised that a generic sci-fi movie would touch on some of the same themes as those Hubbard wrote.

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Wow: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1815862/trivia?item=tr1935547

 

Although not credited on the finished film, co-writer/producer Will Smith was responsible for much of the movie's direction. While Shyamalan was primarily in charge of the blocking (composition of shots, placement of the camera) and the visual aspects of the film (color and design), it was Will Smith who personally coached Jaden Smith in his performance and dictated the development of the story and the way the on-screen action would unfold.

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Yeah that's what I was talking about when I said that Shyamalan was basically chosen to be a figurehead for the movie since he would most likely take any job offered to him at this point.

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I have to wonder if this movie had Shymalan listed as DP and Smith as director, would it have been received differently? Maybe the RT would have been in the 20s.

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I have to wonder if this movie had Shymalan listed as DP and Smith as director, would it have been received differently? Maybe the RT would have been in the 20s.

 

Doubtful, for the most part Shymalan wasn't even being promoted as the director too much, instead relying on the star power of Will and "star power" of Jaden. Even Will knows how much people are realizing he's egotistical, so he probably took on Shymalan to put that blame on him. And remember most people don't realize how much his family is involved in this movie, but since it's in producer and story by roles it doesn't get promoted as much as if Will was making his feature film directorial debut.

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The Scientology connections are pretty tenuous, IMO. Volcanoes! Overcoming fear! It's pretty generic stuff.

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I wouldn't doubt that's possible (the movie kind of screams amateur hour and despite his problem with scripts Shyamalan does know how to shoot a movie competently), but IMDB trivia pages aren't terribly reliable sources of information.

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I may go see this because I like Will Smith (Scientology nonsense and all) and am kinda rooting for Jaden to do good. I think he was ok in the Karate Kid remake though I feel a lot of "older" people -- folks in their late 20s to early 30s -- who remember the Ralph Maccicho(sp?) movies were shitting on the remake just because Hollywood was "ruining their childhood." I've come to realize that the remakes that Hollywood does are not for me or my generation. They are for the younger teens and young adults with people that THEY can relate to. Which is why I am very excited to see the adult crybabies go on when the new Star Wars film comes out. Because it will not be marketed to us, My generation already had its version of the Star War trilogy and it was "meh" at best. Let the younger people have theirs.

 

But I digress, I don't think that there is anything wrong with Will using his clout in Hollywood to help his children become entertainers. I get the feeling he's the type of dad that no matter what you're interested in, he'll read up on it so that he can understand why you like and will spend the time to help you excel in it. Trey, his other son from a previous marriage, isn't in movies or entertainment, but you can be whatever he is into, Will is there encouraging, pushing, and helping him out with it.

 

Like this dude,

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I have nothing against Will Smith personally, other than it was a terrible, selfish decision to make his son the lead in a blockbuster like After Earth. It was nepotism at its worst (in the film industry, that is) and it must be very hard for Jaden to be totally panned in the way that he has been by critics.

 

Nepotism at its worst is Pauley Shore's whole career.

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