Jaden Smith

Jaden Smith looks worried in After Earth (2013), and sometimes that is enough. As Kitai Raige, a boy stranded on a dangerous future Earth with his father, he gives the anxiety a force that the rest of the performance cannot sustain. We felt frustrated when the dialogue explained feelings his face had already supplied, leaving us little to discover for ourselves.

Coming-of-age and father-son stories recur in his work, often alongside established stars. In The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), opposite Will Smith, his sincerity and natural presence drew favourable notice. The lead role in The Karate Kid (2010) required martial arts training, giving physical performance a substantial place in his work. That history matters: the child actor’s promise should not be written off because one later adventure failed, though it does not excuse the awkwardness we found in it.

M. Night Shyamalan directs After Earth with a solemnity that does Smith few favours. The screenplay, by Shyamalan and Gary Whitta, keeps returning to fear and duty, while Will Smith makes Cypher Raige’s reserve so firm that even an argument struggles to get going. Jaden sometimes makes the pressure on Kitai convincing precisely because he looks strained. Elsewhere, we can see the effort without believing the feeling. The film is poor, and he cannot rescue it, but its habit of telling us what to think would leave a more assured performance with little room to develop.

Major film roles became less frequent after After Earth, with music taking more of his attention from the mid-2010s. The later acting credits include The Get Down (2016), Skate Kitchen (2018) and a voice role in Entergalactic (2022). Skate Kitchen drew positive notices for his performance, a reason to look beyond that failure. We are not yet persuaded that carrying another solemn adventure would make good use of him. A part that lets him react without having to recite the lesson would be a better place to start.