After Earth is heavy with Scientology themes, critics say, adding more ammunition against what is already the summer’s biggest box office flop.
The sci-fi film starring Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith was one of the biggest bombs in recent memory, pulling in only $27 million the first weekend. It was even beaten at the box office by Now You See Me , a movie about teleporting, bank-robbing magicians.
Critics say After Earth has another check against it — heavy themes in Scientology. The fringe religion popular with many celebrities (including Will Smith) is widely seen as a cult that’s heavy handed against its critics and even its members. But for the movie industry, the biggest concern is that Scientology is box-office poison.
After Earth is filed with Scientology references, critics say. The movie is about a father and son who crash on Earth 1,000 years after civilization collapsed, forcing humans to leave the planet. The main conflict is about the two conquering their fear, a message heavy in the Scientology text Dianetics.
Volcanoes also play a key image in the movie, and are also central to the teachings of Scientology .
As history has shown, Scientology and movies do not mix well. In the 1970s, Scientology founder and sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard wrote a screenplay called Revolt in the Stars about an alien dictator named Xenu, who sends people to Earth and tries to kill them. Xenu would later become a central belief in Scientology, and the screenplay would be turned into one of the biggest box office bombs of all time, Battlefield Earth .
Whether it has to do with Scientology or not, After Earth has gotten awful reviews . Critics pointed out that it seems to be a birthday present from Will Smith to his son, akin to the Rebecca Black’s vanity music video “Friday.”
