Early sneak peeks of Will and Jaden Smiths’s “After Earth” science fiction adventure have been getting some less than favorable reviews. (Nuke the Fridge’s own DJ Ed loved it.) Now former NASA astronaut Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. weighed in on the film after recently attending a premiere screening.
Aldrin was part of the Apollo 11 mission crew, and the second man to walk on the moon behind Neil Armstrong. He complained to the AP (Associated Press) on some of the smaller details in the film and he was hypercritical of some of the space traveling scenes. Why? There was too much darn noise in space.
Aldrin did mention that there was one author that did get space travel right.
“There was a lot of noise. In space, you don’t get that much noise. Noise doesn’t propagate in a vacuum. We talked over headsets … Fortunately, we were free of static. We could communicate with each other pretty clearly, and mission control, though we were 50,000 miles away…
…Arthur C. Clarke added a bit of reality to the genre with the (function) of the ship and people flying out in space on a mission.”
“After Earth” is a science fiction film. The fiction part allows for some suspension of disbelief. With Hollywood producing these high budget films, there are reasons to strive for more realism in order to draw the audience in closer to the story. Aldrin does have space flight experience most of the public will never have, so it’s easier for him to be more critical of the film.
Here is the storyline for the film.
One thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity’s escape from Earth, Nova Prime has become mankind’s new home. Legendary General Cypher Raige returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai. When an asteroid storm damages Cypher and Kitai’s craft, they crash-land on a now unfamiliar and dangerous Earth. As his father lies dying in the cockpit, Kitai must trek across the hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon. His whole life, Kitai has wanted nothing more than to be a soldier like his father. Today, he gets his chance.
The action/sci-fi/adventure “After Earth” will open in theaters on June 7, 2013. The film stars Will Smith, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jaden Smith, Zoë Kravitz, Sophie Okonedo, Kristofer Hivju, David Denman, Glenn Morshower, Lincoln Lewis, Sacha Dhawan, Chris Geere, Jaden Martin, Gilbert Soto, Darrell Foster, and Monika Jolly. Stephen Gaghan, M. Night Shyamalan, and Gary Whitta wrote the screenplay with additional dialogue by Michael Soccio. M. Night Shyamalan directs.
Source: The Huffington Post