10 Movie Roles Where The Actor Basically Did NOTHING

As intriguing as the pairing of M. Night Shyamalan and Will Smith for an original sci-fi blockbuster sounded on paper, the end result just wasn't it, like, at all.

While on a purely narrative level it's not particularly interesting, After Earth's fatal flaw? Casting Will Smith as an apparent co-lead with his son Jaden, only to ground him for the entire damn movie.

As the preposterously monikered ranger Cypher Raige, Smith is immediately denied agency when Cypher's ship crash-lands on Earth and his legs are broken, forcing his son, Kitai (Jaden Smith), to seek help.

At this point the focus shifts to Kitai with Cypher being shoved into a peripheral role, providing guidance to his son all while Shyamalan periodically cuts back to Smith, typically sat down and reading a screen, to remind you that he indeed came to set for the role.

Casting Will Smith in an original blockbuster and confining him to a chair for almost the entire runtime, while passing the baton to his decidedly less-charismatic son, was a creative own-goal that somehow passed through the hands of countless creatives and studio goons without challenge. Truly bizarre.