When your last two movies are the nauseating THE HAPPENING and the sack-punching THE LAST AIRBENDER, you do not, under any circumstances, use your name in the marketing material for promoting your movie. You keep it tucked away in the small print where nobody will ever know. Such is the case with M. Night Shyamalan and his new movie, AFTER EARTH, starring Will and Jaden Smith, and rightly so. After building some clout with critical and commercial successes such as THE SIXTH SENSE, UNBREAKABLE and SIGNS – Shyamalan subsequently burned his good name to the ground with the aforementioned disasters. Now he’s back – somewhat silently – to direct the Smith Family Space Adventure, which hits theaters on June 7, 2013.

I have to say, while I’m extremely cautious, AFTER EARTH looks good. The story revolves around humanity abandoning the decaying planet for a new, stable home, light years away from Earth, called Nova Prime. Civilization is ressucitated and 1,000 years later, General Cypher Raige (Will Smith) and his son, Kitai (Jaden Smith), head back to Earth with a dangerous alien payload for some father/son bonding. That all goes to hell-in-a-handbasket when their ship is pulverized in an asteroid field and they are left to fend for themselves on Earth, which is now overgrown with all sorts of dangerous creepy crawlies.

Check out the trailer below and let me know what you think. I’m not sold, but it’s definitely on my summer 2013 watch list.