I enjoyed elements of this film (due to the miracle of rock-bottom expectations) despite Jaden Smith's acting. I actually knew someone like Will Smith's depicted character, and so the sentimentality *initially* worked for me. But I saw how contrived this movie was, so I gave it a middling score of 5 stars and went to bed, wondering if I'd been too harsh.
The next morning I woke up with an odd sense of "buyer's remorse" -- that I had been suckered (by M. Night Shyamalan), and so I rewrote this review from scratch, thus exorcising the mental demon (IMDB is great for that).
To be fair, I thought there was real tension in many scenes, so I don't fully understand the terrible (1-star) reviews. Also, it was nice to see Sophie Okonedo and Zoë Kravitz, despite their small roles.
Starting with six stars for "unrealized potential" (or brainless entertainment), but subtracting one star for the blatantly contrived set-up and another for the manipulative style (i.e., sentiment-as-distraction), I arrive at four (4) stars.
The next morning I woke up with an odd sense of "buyer's remorse" -- that I had been suckered (by M. Night Shyamalan), and so I rewrote this review from scratch, thus exorcising the mental demon (IMDB is great for that).
To be fair, I thought there was real tension in many scenes, so I don't fully understand the terrible (1-star) reviews. Also, it was nice to see Sophie Okonedo and Zoë Kravitz, despite their small roles.
Starting with six stars for "unrealized potential" (or brainless entertainment), but subtracting one star for the blatantly contrived set-up and another for the manipulative style (i.e., sentiment-as-distraction), I arrive at four (4) stars.