M. Night Shyamalan's After Earth

[DarKJediKnight]

Is there a twist?

 

[terry78]

People are already hating due to it being Will and Jaden, but you never know until it comes out.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Man, I wanted to give Night another chance with The Happening and Last Airbender, but my God... I really thought he was going to redeem himself with that. I was clearly wrong.

The man still isn't a bad filmmaker. He's made three incredible films and I don't know what the **** happened after that. He's capable, but man, I don't blame poeple for losing faith.

 

[SuperAl]

I hope this bombs horrible. I seriously hate this man for ruining the Last Airbender. Couldve been an awesome trilogy, i wish someone other than him got to make it.

 

[Wolfwood]

Will Smith will set Shyamlan straight again. He wont let his kid star in a crappy movie.

 

[Rocketman]

Night is, and will continue to be, one of my all-time favorite directors. He's gone downhill hard and fast, but his previous work is enough to make me look past it.

In my opinion, he's been FANTASTIC most of the time:

The Sixth Sense - Fantastic
Unbreakable - Fantastic
Signs - Fantastic
The Village - Fantastic
Lady in the Water - CRAP
The Happening - CRAP
The Last Airbender - CRAP

He hit a streak of only three bad movies. He'll come back. Spielberg went through the same thing. Night is still a modern-day Hitchcock in my eyes.

And speaking of Spielberg, he's considered the greatest living director, and one of the greatest directors of all-time, yet...

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
War of the Worlds (2005)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Hook (1991)
Always (1989)
1941 (1979)

... all of which are considered crap-tacular. Spielberg refuses to talk about Hook in interviews, as he considers it his biggest mistake.

So any hate directed at Night is unjustified until further notice. Unbreakable alone should be an indication of what he can do.

As far as The Last Airbender, I agree, it sucked beyond comprehension. One of the biggest crap movies ever made, EVER... but, keep in mind that there is an extended cut out there where the the film was originally an hour and a half longer (that's right: half the movie was cut from theaters), AND you mustn't ignore classic studio interference that has given us such hits as X-Men 3, Batman & Robin, Spider-Man 3, and Wolverine. While TLA was extreeeemely piss-poor, I put only some of the blame on Night.

If you believe that Sam Raimi truly loved Spider-Man, then you must admit that it wasn't him ALONE who made Spider-Man 3. The man, after all, gave us Spider-Man 2.

If you believe that Night truly loved A:TLA (one of his favorite shows of all-time), then you must admit that it wasn't him ALONE who made TLA. The man, after all, gave us The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable - both of which are highly regarded (Sixth Sense rests on IMDB's Top 250 movies of all-time, and is on AFI's 100 Greatest Movies Ever Made).

Whiny fanboy rant over.

 

[dude stannis]

Sci-fi version of Pursuit of Happyness.

So... The Road...

 

[Hurm...]

Man, I wanted to give Night another chance with The Happening and Last Airbender, but my God... I really thought he was going to redeem himself with that. I was clearly wrong.

The man still isn't a bad filmmaker. He's made three incredible films and I don't know what the **** happened after that. He's capable, but man, I don't blame poeple for losing faith.

I think his mentality is..."TRY TO BE AS ORIGINAL AS POSSIBLE"

As a result of that, we get plant villains.

 

[dark_b]

Sure, he's a good director if you've been living under a rock for the past decade. To me, The Village wasn't that bad, but it was the start of it. Then Lady in the Water. Then The Happening. Then Airbender. It just collapsed under his feet.

And not to give you a hard time (because I like you Dark B) it's HIS, not hes. It's worst than confusing 'your' with 'you're'.

i agree with you. he made horrible choices in the last years .as an artist i have to respect that because it was hes choice. but it was bad.

IMO he makes bad choices. the talent ,hes directing skills were never the problem .

hollywood is IMO a big problem. if you are a celebrity you will have a big ego. because everyone around you is always 100% positive about your work. i understand that its all about money and promotion. but there should be a line. remember what everyone around Shymalan was saying in the 90's and then 2000? some were talking like he was a god.

 

[steintym]

I don't know ... This seems to have stink written all over it. I'll wait to hear/see way more before I'd even considering checking this out.

 

[El Payaso]

How in hell is this guy allowed to keep directing movies?

After Sixth Sense everything he's done has been from meh to terrible: And I mean with every movie he has lowered his standards. A lot.

No, I didn't care for Unbreakable. It was pretty bad and pretentiously comic booky. Lady in the Water was really cringe-worthy and The Happening even more so. His "marriage" with the end twist is one of the worst ideas ever imagined.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

No, I didn't care for Unbreakable. It was pretty bad and pretentiously comic booky. Lady in the Water was really cringe-worthy

You have said that you only watched Unbreakable once, many years ago. I think you owe the movie another viewing, it is held in very high regard with a lot of cb/sh film fans.

LITW? The first time I saw it at the cinema i thought it was a lot of crap, but i ended up buying it for 3 quid on dvd, and ended up thinking it was quite good in a weird way, once i lowered my expectations for it to be a return to form of 'Signs' etc, not nearly as bad as some make out.

as for this next one, yeah, i have not seen Last AirBender yet, so can't comment on his latest, but he does really need to knock it out of the park with this movie, and seriously get his mojo back, cause there was a quality dip after Signs. The Village was alright, only really notable for Bryce Dallas Howard's performance, and the cinematography, cause unlike the preceding threee good ones, it does not hold up to repeated viewings, it being somewhat dependant on the twist surpises, again, unlike the previous 3.

He could do well here, Will Smith is not going to put up with any crap or farting about, having someone on set who might intimidate shymalan will do his ego some good, and hold him in check in that regard, so his creative sensibilities will have to measure up, instead of coasting on the reputation he carries of himself in his mind, which may lead to him being more slipshod with the art these days. Basically no-one has been there to say 'No M Night, that is S****!, no-one with any weight anyway, if you look at the movies, the last one to feature a heavy weight like that was Signs with Gibson, and Willis was in the preceding two, so there may be something to that, his rep and accompanying ego hitting their peak after Signs as well, as that was his last major world wide hit.

 

[Papa Burgundy]

Night is, and will continue to be, one of my all-time favorite directors. He's gone downhill hard and fast, but his previous work is enough to make me look past it.

In my opinion, he's been FANTASTIC most of the time:

The Sixth Sense - Fantastic
Unbreakable - Fantastic
Signs - Fantastic
The Village - Fantastic
Lady in the Water - CRAP
The Happening - CRAP
The Last Airbender - CRAP

He hit a streak of only three bad movies. He'll come back. Spielberg went through the same thing. Night is still a modern-day Hitchcock in my eyes.

And speaking of Spielberg, he's considered the greatest living director, and one of the greatest directors of all-time, yet...

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
War of the Worlds (2005)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Hook (1991)
Always (1989)
1941 (1979)

... all of which are considered crap-tacular. Spielberg refuses to talk about Hook in interviews, as he considers it his biggest mistake.

So any hate directed at Night is unjustified until further notice. Unbreakable alone should be an indication of what he can do.

As far as The Last Airbender, I agree, it sucked beyond comprehension. One of the biggest crap movies ever made, EVER... but, keep in mind that there is an extended cut out there where the the film was originally an hour and a half longer (that's right: half the movie was cut from theaters), AND you mustn't ignore classic studio interference that has given us such hits as X-Men 3, Batman & Robin, Spider-Man 3, and Wolverine. While TLA was extreeeemely piss-poor, I put only some of the blame on Night.

If you believe that Sam Raimi truly loved Spider-Man, then you must admit that it wasn't him ALONE who made Spider-Man 3. The man, after all, gave us Spider-Man 2.

If you believe that Night truly loved A:TLA (one of his favorite shows of all-time), then you must admit that it wasn't him ALONE who made TLA. The man, after all, gave us The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable - both of which are highly regarded (Sixth Sense rests on IMDB's Top 250 movies of all-time, and is on AFI's 100 Greatest Movies Ever Made).

Whiny fanboy rant over.

its funny that after i read all that, i just keep thinking how terrible m night is. sorry!

 

[steintym]

Although I really liked Signs and The Village was pretty good, there is definitely a downward trend in quality when you take all of his movies into consideration. I don't have a ton of hope for this new one.

 

[Lencho01]

Will Smith will set Shyamlan straight again. He wont let his kid star in a crappy movie.

And he has the pull/is probably willing to do so. I just read this too...

http://io9.com/#!5789171/can-will-smith-and-his-son-save-m-night-shyamalans-career

Can Will Smith and his son save M. Night Shyamalan’s caree

Meredith Woerner — What could make us dread another M. Night Shyamalan movie even more? What about adding that child actor who ruined Karate Kid? Although it sounds Shyamalan's next picture is The Happening 2, we're still clinging to a bit of optimism.

Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith are uniting with M. Night Shyamalan for his mysterious new science fiction feature. It's set a thousand years in the future on an abandoned Earth (and was previously titled One Thousand A.E.).

To be fair, it seemed as though Jaden could act in The Pursuit of Happyness, so perhaps he just needs constant supervision from his dad. Meanwhile, Shyamalan has surrounded himself with people that told him The Last Airbender looked great. So if Will Smith can drown out all the yes-men on set, we may have a very interesting post-apocalyptic adventure on our hands. We trust Smith's judgment and we know Shyamalan has the capability to make good movies. It's a big responsibility but Smith isn't just a giant Hollywood actor, he's also a pretty demanding producer. So maybe Smith's input will save Shyamalan from himself.

Also on the plus side, Shyamalan didn't write the script — Book of Eli scribe Gary Whitta did. Which, well, OK maybe that's not a huge plus. In any case, we just want the old Shyamalan back. We don't care how this happens, but if anyone can do it, Will Smith can.

 

[Wolfwood]

I hope Smith hears a terrible idea and is all like "Aww Hell naw!"

 

[antsman41]

Hook and Lost World are better than anything M. Night has done but Unbreakable...

 

[steintym]

I don't know ... personally I think the Sixth Sense and Signs are up there with Unbreakable.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

I think Signs is the best Alien Invasion movie ever made. To concentrate it on the perspective of one family, in the middle of nowhere, and then to also link it to the story of a preacher losing his faith, that's brilliant.
That got the story feeling as real as possible, boiling it down to the emotions that keep us together as a family, the very fabric of humanity, as that is the imporatnt thing we would lose. Instead of some big sfx extravanganza with a lot of shouting and shooting... who cares about the White House blowing up? It's just some government building. Most of the ****s who have passed through that building are not much better than the invading aliens.

Bringing it down to the level of a family in the middle of nowhere, was the perfect vehicle for the tale of the preacher losing his faith, as it carried that sense of possibly feeling totally alone in the universe, or whether you had faith there was a higher intelligence looking out for you.

 

[Papa Burgundy]

I think Signs is the best Alien Invasion movie ever made. To concentrate it on the perspective of one family, in the middle of nowhere, and then to also link it to the story of a preacher losing his faith, that's brilliant.
That got the story feeling as real as possible, boiling it down to the emotions that keep us together as a family, the very fabric of humanity, as that is the imporatnt thing we would lose. Instead of some big sfx extravanganza with a lot of shouting and shooting... who cares about the White House blowing up? It's just some government building. Most of the ****s who have passed through that building are not much better than the invading aliens.

Bringing it down to the level of a family in the middle of nowhere, was the perfect vehicle for the tale of the preacher losing his faith, as it carried that sense of possibly feeling totally alone in the universe, or whether you had faith there was a higher intelligence looking out for you.

All of that is fine, until you find out the aliens weakness is water. stupid. lets go to a planet FULL of our weakness...i hate when these alien invasion movies come out and the humans win because of the aliens are allergic to something common, it feels like such a cheap way out to a actual resolution. f you signs. and especially f you war of the worlds, i thought you were ramping up to some awesome final battle or outcome, then we get...THEY GOT KILLED BY GERMS, THE END.

wtf!? KICK ROCKS.

 

[Ghostvirus]

I will always maintain that it was just about the water. It was about the chemicals we put in the water. The litte girl kept saying it had amebas in it. I don't think pure water. Like Rain, condensation, etc...

 

[Project862006]

the problem is each movie gets worse

i did'nt think it was possible for m night to make a worst movie than the happening but tLA was worse

 

[Micromind]

Thanks, Rocketman and F1LMM4KER for the above posts, I completely agree with the points you have mentioned there.

M.Night Shymlan has made some really good movies and he has the ability to do so again, if anyone is having problems with his vision then he should see the trailers, read reviews and then if he feels that the movie is bad, just don't go to see it in theaters.

Give him a chance just as every other director gets.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

All of that is fine, until you find out the aliens weakness is water. stupid. lets go to a planet FULL of our weakness...i hate when these alien invasion movies come out and the humans win because of the aliens are allergic to something common, it feels like such a cheap way out to a actual resolution. f you signs. and especially f you war of the worlds, i thought you were ramping up to some awesome final battle or outcome, then we get...THEY GOT KILLED BY GERMS, THE END.

Stupid? Is it? What if it really is like that with some malevolent alien race out there? There is ufo literature out there that puts forth the theory that some of the alien races who have visited Earth are allergic to water, I guess Shyamalan based it on that.

The way I look at it is, Earth is an organism right? Just like the human body, it will have anti-bodies in it's organic make-up to fight off attacks by invading organisms. Reality has created these specific types of aliens who want to invade and kidnap us, so in order for the human race to survive against these intruders, who are bigger and stronger than us, it has been granted with a defence mechanism with the old water.

edit: and even apart from that, whether you think it is a stupid concept.. Does he make it work dramatically in the movie? For me, yes, he does, it helps the story that they are cut off from society in essence, there is only that slight clue given by the Doc played by Shaymalan, that the aliens have not been seen near expanses of water. But, apart from that, shyamalan ticks all the dramatic boxes, he explains that the aliens have no interest in fighting weapon to weapon, risking nuclear strikes, as they want to bodily kidnap the people, not destroy them.
I would say they are counting on the fact that people just would not think of using such a thing as a water pistol against them. Given their superior tech, we would be thinking of the most sophisticated way of defeating them, and he also explains that their weakness was found during an attack on some middle eastern low tech village, who had limited defences, so someone just turned a water hose on them.
and of course, you have syncronicity/fate/God to thank for the family finding their weakness out, due to the kid's prediliction for having lots of glasses of water all over the place.

The point of the movie is not how they are defeated anyway, that is just dressing, the whole story is about having faith that God/Fate will take care of you if you believe. The fact they are cut off from other people, and have no apparent defences against the attack, is taken care of by these characteristics that have been given to them by God/fate, that allow them to survive.

 

[Octoberist]

Well, that's an opinion. I wonder what would've happened to Steven Spielberg if the internet was around in the mid-80's. I can see it now:

"The Color Purple was so boring. Empire of the Sun sucks. Always is the worst movie ever made. I didn't think he could make a worse movie than Always, but then he made Hook. I can't believe this is the same director who made Jaws, E.T. and Indiana Jones. What happened to this guy? Oh my god, Steven Spielberg is the worst director to ever live!"

Preposterous.

it's kinda misguided that you just compared current M. Night to late 80s Speilberg since those movies you mentioned were still considered good by the masses. And till very day, Steven has not made a movie as bad as The Happening or The Last Airbender. Dont give me that. And I can't see The Last Airbrnder still being recognized by the Oscars by it's acting unlike The Color Purple. For Gid's sakes, your screen name is film maker; should you not know this? Shouldn't you create a stronger case then?

Serious geek denial because it's a complete denial that M. Night's career is in danger. Even the biggest M. Night fan would admit that he needs help fast.