Today is the premiere of “After Earth,” a movie that was created by the Smith Family (Will, Jada, Jayden and Willow) as part of a family venture. To date, many critics have not been nice about the critique of the movie; however if I could, I would like to give my take on the movie from a spiritual aspect. As a Sci-Fi head (Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien Nation etc.), I was excited to see the rush previews of “After Earth” and was anticipating a great movie with awesome entertainment. I can understand why the critics were hard on the movie reviews – they expected something similar to “I am Legend” or perhaps they were looking for something new that they hadn’t seen before. As far as this person is concerned, I took away some very, very specific spiritual lessons about father/son relationships, not just the natural, but also between me and God. Let me just share: In the movie, father and son lose contact with one another. Cypher (Will Smith) can see Kitai (Jayden Smith), but Kitai cannot see or hear Cypher. There can be no more instruction. Either Kitai will let his training take over and guide his actions, or all is lost. Can Kitai engage his will to do what he knows to be right even in the face of daunting, frightening circumstances? Does any of this sound familiar in your own life? In the life of every child, there comes a day when they leave their mother and father and strike out on their own. The Bible explains that parents should “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). This is a general principle, of course, not a scientific recipe for perfect children. The idea presented is that if parents will ground their children in sound principles, even if they should stray a little, eventually good training will kick in, the more mature child will see the wisdom of the course explained by the parent, and the child will cling to it. The important lesson is that parents must instill the right way in a child; otherwise when they grow up and face problems, they will have nothing to fall back upon. “After Earth” is about a father properly equipping his child, and then experiencing the anxiety of all parents as he helplessly watches and waits to see if the instruction “took.” As a father myself, although my kids are now adults, I see that things that were taught previously, they have used today – even though I didn’t think they were going to make it at times. Yet I stand proud as dad, having to go through all of the pains and lessons of parental growth. While it is true the movie may not have gotten high marks, if you can look through all of the action and eye candy, you will see an awesome story about the love of a father for his son and a true bonding of a son with his father (are you reading between the lines?). For those that can see the spiritual and not just the entertainment portion, you will leave desiring to be a better father or have a better relationship with the Father. Either way you will get blessed from the message of the movie. Fathers and sons should consider seeing the film together, and then having a long talk afterward about what it takes to become a man and what makes a mission worth pursuing. For me, I left the theater with tears in my eyes and calling my son just to say he is doing a great job as father to his own child.
