After Earth Trailer Arrives After Earth Day, Will Smith’s Voice Is Still Silly

After Earth Day is After Earth Day.

By Brent McKnight | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

In case you missed it, yesterday was Earth Day. Apparently that makes today, April 23rd, After Earth Day, a day set aside to celebrate the latest sci-fi film from M. Night Shyamalan and the father-son team of Will and Jaden Smith. I didn’t get any time off of work, so it couldn’t be much of a holiday. However, we do have a new minute-long trailer.

We already knew that After Earth takes place 1,000 years after the human race was forced to leave our home planet for good, but this video sheds some light on how and why. In the next few decades we’ll screw up the planet so bad that by 2071 we’ll have no choice but to abandon Earth. That is, until the father-son team of Cypher and Kitai Raige (Will and Jaden, respectively, and no, I’m not kidding about those names) crash land on the surface of a planet where every living thing has evolved to kill humans.

io9 points out something I’ve often wondered about. How has everything evolved to kill humans if there haven’t been any humans to kill for more than 1,000 years? In this case, I’m even willing to overlook the fact that it only took 1,000 years for such evolution to occur.

Given the Earth Day tie-in, I’m now fairly certain that After Earth is also going to try to cram in some heavy-handed message about saving the environment. Maybe Will Smith will teach us to recycle in that awkward voice that keeps changing throughout. Seriously, they can’t even keep the voice consistent for 60 seconds?

Initially, I was pretty pumped about the idea of After Earth. Some of the earlier stuff looked pretty cool, but the more that comes out, the sillier it looks. At this point it’s starting to feel like we’re going to get another terrible movie from Shyamalan, whose name, if you’ve been paying attention, is almost never mentioned among the marketing materials.

For good or ill, After Earth opens on May 31st, one week earlier than originally scheduled.