M. Night Shyamalan: Rise and Fall

[Sawyer]

I kind of think that drearyness is less M. Night and more on Willis. Really, Willis was at the start of his "If this is a straight up drama then I must be Mister Minimalism" Phase. I guess in the end Willis' performance is supposed to be guided by the director but even then he was doing this in other films.

Highly possible. All those kinds of scenes do stem from him and his character. The scene where SLJ chews out the dad buying art for his kid and then later on makes a scene in the comic book shop were pretty great. Maybe Willis was the problem for me.

 

[antonydelfini]

I actually think it's one of Willis' best performances (Sam Jackson's too). It was understated and melancholy because he was playing a guy without a purpose. This movie was before Willis stopped caring and Jackson consigned to just play variations of his off-screen persona (with exceptions of course).

This. And the movie's got humor but not too much, and a lot of optimism. Hated the last scene but loved the entire movie.

 

[Marz69]

See it's not just the declining quality of his films that bugs me. It's his ego and complete inability to deal with criticism. Also he and George Lucas both have this amazing "talent" for taking accomplished actors and making them seem boring, lifeless, and wooden in their movies.

What was up with Will smith

 

[Micromind]

See it's not just the declining quality of his films that bugs me. It's his ego and complete inability to deal with criticism. Also he and George Lucas both have this amazing "talent" for taking accomplished actors and making them seem boring, lifeless, and wooden in their movies.

I disagree, I usually hate Mel Gibson when he tries to do dramatic roles, but I liked him in Shyamlan's Signs, which was an accomplishment.

Joaquin Phoenix was also good in Signs, I never found then boring or lifeless as you put it.

 

[Loki882]

see I've seen Mel give FAR more impressive dramatic performances than he did there. And I didn't say that ALL of the actors are that way, but too many for my taste.

 

[The Shape]

I don't know if there's a thread for The Visit, but I just saw it and thought it was great. Really well done and a lot of fun.

 

[Brother Jack]

I've heard its something of a return to form. Good thing if it is. Let's hope Shyamalan's all consuming ego doesn't ruin whatever measure of good will this earns him.

 

[kguillou]

I've been very curious to watch Wayward Pines (I love mysteries) but I keep hearing every episode is great except for the finale which ruins the series. Can anyone vouch for this?

 

[Majik1387]

Only the last 2-3 minutes ruin the finale.

 

[ThePhantasm]

I haven't seen the Visit, but I'm in the minority who have loved most of Shyamalan's films. I love the Village and Signs. Lady in the Water is not great story-wise, but it has one of the best soundtracks of all time. The Happening is a very weak bore, and the less said about Avatar and After Earth the better.

Shyamalan is great at making kinda cheesy but emotionally satisfying movies. I also think he's a great director and ideas man. Not the best scriptwriter. And definitely better suited for slow-paced, character-centric stories than big budget bonanzas.

 

[Marz69]

I've been very curious to watch Wayward Pines (I love mysteries) but I keep hearing every episode is great except for the finale which ruins the series. Can anyone vouch for this?

I didn't like the ending at first. But then I was OK with it. It wasn't what I would have preferred but I can see the why of it.

 

[kguillou]

I didn't like the ending at first. But then I was OK with it. It wasn't what I would have preferred but I can see the why of it.

Would you say its worth investing 10 hours to watch then? I dont want to invest all that time knowing in the back of my mind a crappy ending is at the end of the tunnel.

 

[batman1]

He got weird. His movies made no sense and the twists weren't big twists anymore.

 

[Rocketman]

If he just sticks to the small budgets of Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and now The Visit, he's golden. And beyond that, he's an excellent ideas man. I'd say he's blatantly better than someone like David Goyer.

I really don't mind Signs, The Village, or Lady in the Water. Those three have great things going on in them. I think they're great for the most part.

 

[MrMaooz]

Some people hating on Signs in this thread?

 

[Snow Queen]

Some people hating on Signs in this thread?

As they should be.

 

[DyeLorean]

I agree with pretty much everyone here. His first three films are very, very good. Signs is probably my favorite, just because the actors are excellent, the setting, the constant paranoia and is just perfectly directed. M Night has great eye for suspense, which is why I think he is, even in his 'bad' films, a good director who just happens to work with terrible scripts.
Unbreakable is genius, an amazing re-telling of the superhero myth.
Haven't seen The Visit yet.

 

[MOVIELORD101]

People keep slamming M Night for After Earth, but I argue that was more of Will Smith's vanity project than it was a true M Night Shyamalan movie like all his other works. He only hired to direct it because Will asked him to shortly after Airbender came out (obviously he hadn't seen THAT one at the time, no doubt), and while YES M Night was also credited as co writer with Garry Witta, the story credit is Will Smith's and Will Smith's alone. Seriously, it's a movie about Jaden's character being forced to follow in his famous dad's footsteps (sound familiar??). So yeah, this was MOSTLY Will's project more than it was M Night's.

However, this isn't excusing M Night from everything ELSE wrong the movie. The bad writing and acting direction was DEFINITELY his fault. I just feel M. Nights incompetency at the time just made thing worse rather than trying to salvage this from turning into Will Smith's ego trip at the time. Still I think even Will has learned his lesson from this incident (that horrid Annie remake aside). Jaden hasn't been in a movie SINCE After Earth, and Will's getting back into more constant acting roles.

 

[Mysteryman]

People keep slamming M Night for After Earth, but I argue that was more of Will Smith's vanity project than it was a true M Night Shyamalan movie like all his other works. He only hired to direct it because Will asked him to shortly after Airbender came out (obviously he hadn't seen THAT one at the time, no doubt), and while YES M Night was also credited as co writer with Garry Witta, the story credit is Will Smith's and Will Smith's alone. Seriously, it's a movie about Jaden's character being forced to follow in his famous dad's footsteps (sound familiar??). So yeah, this was MOSTLY Will's project more than it was M Night's.

However, this isn't excusing M Night from everything ELSE wrong the movie. The bad writing and acting direction was DEFINITELY his fault. I just feel M. Nights incompetency at the time just made thing worse rather than trying to salvage this from turning into Will Smith's ego trip at the time. Still I think even Will has learned his lesson from this incident (that horrid Annie remake aside). Jaden hasn't been in a movie SINCE After Earth, and Will's getting back into more constant acting roles.

I would be interested in M Night developing his own science fiction film .
Preferably straight science fiction without horror elements.

 

[DyeLorean]

M Night should find a writing partner that can squeeze his good ideas and keep that bad ones out, because after The Village he started losing 'it'.

 

[titansupes]

I only saw Signs about a week ago. I really enjoyed it except for the ending. As others have said, the actors played really well together... I actually didn't expect it to be as funny as it was. I found it endearing.

 

[DyeLorean]

What didn't you like about the ending?

 

[titansupes]

What didn't you like about the ending?

The water thing. It was a little too coincidental as many have said, but that's not the big issue for me (I got the whole "faith/everything happens for a reason thing"), but that is was written and directed very strangely. There was always an element of light-heartedness running through the whole movie to that point, but it skewed too far into goofiness at the climax. IMO.

 

[Rocketman]

I don't think Last Airbender was fully his fault. There was studio interference up the wazoo. He expressed passionately in many interviews that he and his kids were hardcore, obsessive fans of the show. The studio might've thought he was a director-for-fire because he struck out with his previous two films and they could control him - then they find out he actually cares about the material and directs a 3+ hour cut of the film, which the studio butchered to hell. This is pretty easy to research stuff. People act like that was a Joel Schumacher situation, but this was a terrible movie because of two sides butting heads, and the movie was lost in translation. Not a good movie at all, but he's not solely to blame.

As far as The Happening, I believe him when he says he was purposely making a cheesy B movie, because that's exactly what it was. People just didn't care for it.

I'll agree fully that Will Smith is one of the ones to blame for a lot of After Earth, too.

Lady in the Water? That's a passion project he made for his children, based on the bedtime story of the same name he ended up publishing. Not an excuse for the movie being subpar... but it was for his kids. I see his writer-character in the film being his way of his kids thinking their dad is a hero, not some egomaniacal idiot trying to tell the masses that he's the second coming. It doesn't seem to match his personality.

Look, I think Night's a very sharp, down to earth guy. He's got sharp humor in interviews and even his screenplays show as much. I think he's a victim of several bad circumstances in a row, and also suffered from being too big too fast. When Newsweek is saying you're the next Spielberg after one successful movie, there are already people lining up around the block hoping you fail. They're already doing it with Nolan.

I also think (and I apologize if this is a little "out there"), but I don't find it to be a coincidence at all that his reputation started declining shortly post-9/11. He was alright in 1999, 2000, and Signs was anticipated in 2001... then suddenly in 2002 he's "Shamalamadingdong". Not saying there's a racist undertone there, but the general mood of the American public was pretty noticeable rolling into 2002. Probably not a factual assessment at all, but he wasn't exactly the face that the Average American Joe wanted to support. Just my opinion.

 

[Brother Jack]

Signs has a great first two acts but falls apart at the climax with one of the dumbest twists. The Village has a similar problem. But there's still much to be enjoyed in both films, particularly the scores by James Newton Howard, who has scored all of his movies. Lady in the Water has some interesting things in it as well, and again a great score. But the whole thing with M. Night casting himself as a literal Christ figure that's mostly irrelevant to the plot and pillorying film critics with the critic character are two of the most self indulgent things I've ever seen a director do. Just the height of egoism.