"After Earth" in this installment of Crazy Eddie at the movies

I'll get around to the acceptance speech I promised in Let's celebrate with Grumpy Cat presently.  Right now, I'm a little too tired from putting together my wife's bike to compose one.

Instead, I'm posting the material about "After Earth" that I included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Asteroid Fly-by) on Daily Kos last night.  It turns out that the movie isn't just an adventure flick.  It has a serious environmental message and fits right in with my theme on this blog of examining sustainability issues through science fiction.*

First, Space.com has an exclusive interview video, Will Smith Says: After Earth, No Cars & No Beef, that makes the environmental warning to humans explicit.

After Earth's lead actor/producer and his co-star son Jaden share their view of an Earth that has 'kicked out" its human inhabitants as punishment for their mistreatment. Also, fmr. NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman opines on the movie's spaceship.

Will Smith produced this movie, so it looks like he's more of an environmentalist that I thought.**

Next, Discovery News on YouTube talked to one of the consultants for the movie in Is 'After Earth' Our Future?

It's a sci-fi film, but could our future resemble Will and Jaden Smith's in 'After Earth'? Trace interviews biologist and author, Dr. Joe Levine, about what made life uninhabitable for humans in the new movie, and how we can prevent a similar fate.

Levine points out what is fantastic about this movie when he acknowledges that large animals don't evolve as fast as they'd have to in the film. Still, he does a good job of explaining the scientific background for the future Earth.

Finally, NASA Television on YouTube has a celebrity tie-in with Actor Jaden Smith Highlights Earth Science in a New NASA PSA

Jaden Smith, star of Columbia Pictures' movie "After Earth," is featured in a new NASA public service announcement that describes the contributions of the agency's Earth science program to environmental awareness and exploration of our home planet.

Yet another reason to support NASA.  It has a mission here on Earth, not just in space.

*Yes, that's the "Roots" thought for the day, if I don't get around to composing an acceptance speech.

**That's not the only message in the movie.  On his Facebook wall, Nebris linked to A Former Scientologist Reviews 'After Earth' (Guest Column) in the Hollywood Reporter.  There is apparently a Scientology subtext to the film.  It's no secret what I think of Scientology, since I compared it and Objectivism, and I detest Objectivism.  Just the same, be careful to keep the baby and toss out just the bathwater when watching this film.