10 Movies That Sold You A Lie
5. After Earth Isn't A Will Smith Blockbuster From An Unknown Director
After Earth is a prime example of what happens when a movie star lets their ego run wild. Based on a story by Will Smith, produced by his Overbrook Entertainment company and co-starring his son Jaden, the original pitch was a contemporary father-son survival tale before the former Fresh Prince decided to have it set 1000 years in the future instead, upping the budget to $150m in the process.
Both the trailers and posters made the project look like a two-hander when in reality Smith Sr., one of the most charismatic actors on the planet, spends most of it sitting on his a** doing nothing but spout tedious exposition in one of the worst performances of his career while rampant nepotism allows the charisma-free and painfully wooden Jaden to anchor the movie in a masterclass of bad acting.
To cap off the campaign of misdirection, the man behind the camera was none other than M. Night Shyamalan, whose name was still so toxic after a string of duds that it was never mentioned until the movie's end credits. Ironically, Shyamalan has since gone on to rehabilitate his career while Will has seen his stock in the industry drop significantly, and Jaden hasn't appeared on the big screen since.