I have the movie, but so far, I haven't been able to get through it without switching it off. I might have lasted the first 10 minutes. Maybe, one day, I'll try for 11 minutes. Who knows, it might get better.

I had my computer next to me and was surfing stuff to keep me from turning it off.

I have bad things to say about "Jack the Giant Slayer" (AKA Jack and the Beanstalk) which is stupid and silly BUT BUT BUT the actors do such a good job in JACK that you stick around for the fun parts of the giants rampage and the action. It's the bit actors that make that movie - Ian McShane, Ewan McGregor, etc…

After Earth depends on two characters and Will Smith's commander is wooden and one-dimensional.

His son might have the ability to act better but the script and the directing defeats any attempt at that.

I will always remember a commentary on "A ROOM WITH A VIEW" (a costume drama from 1985) that was the first starring role for Helena Bonham Carter. She was young, fresh and learning but she couldn't command the screen. However, Every time in the movie when Maggie Smith appears on the screen, the movie rises from the ordinary into something special. Maggie Smith commanded the screen but also avoids the sin of stealing the scene from the other actors. SImon Callow, Julian Sand and a few others lift that movie from merely good to excellent.

When you create a movie or a play with two characters there is no room for bad dialog and wooden direction and awful acting.

I see this in music. It is one thing to be a player in the violin section of an orchestra and entirely something else to be the duet on stage for a Piano and Violin Concerto or a string quartet when only two or four people are onstage and all of their faults exposed.