Buzz Aldrin Points Out Inaccuracies in "After Earth"

Nearly a week after its release, M. Night Shyamalan’s “After Earth” has garnered a wide range of critics, including Buzz Aldrin who, despite calling it a great family drama, criticized it as unrealistic. And while the retired astronaut could go after a myriad of points, his main point of contention is the noise.

“There was a lot of noise,” he told the Associated Press. “In space, you don’t get that much noise.”

The second man to step on the surface of the Moon further explained that even with his fellow astronaut beside him during that historic experience, the two communicated via headsets because “noise doesn’t propagate in a vacuum.”

“Fortunately, we were free of static," he explained. "We could communicate with each other pretty clearly, and mission control, though we were 50,000 miles away.”

While some may roll their eyes at the demand of a summer blockbuster to keep within the laws of science, Aldrin pointed to what he feels was the ability of one author to keep a space story interesting and plausible.

“Arthur C. Clarke added a bit of reality to the genre with the (function) of the ship and people flying out in space on a mission,” he said.

And although Aldrin can’t argue against the inaccuracy of the temperament of the movie’s aliens, he did say that he hoped that, “wherever they are,” they are more peaceful than those in “After Earth.”

What the movie and Aldrin do share, however, is a belief in humanity’s destiny to colonize other worlds, quoting his colleague and friend Neil Armstrong by saying that the mission to the Moon was a small step, “but to me the giant leap is establishing permanence on another planet.”

Though, Aldrin admits, he does not think he will make it to his dream home of Mars unless he's “really, really long-lived.”