When you say recent work, you mean everything after "The Village" right? Because that was the last of his movies that was bearable imo.
More or less.
As someone who loves TLA series, his film is a crime against all good things.
Like you, I never bothered with
After Earth; I got the feeling Shyamalan was just Will Smith's gun-for-hire.
Unlike you, I never watched
The Last Airbender series. I found the film adaptation to be intermittently interesting, but somewhat slack in its narrative tension.
Lady in The Water was engaging in its low-key approach, and I remember being struck by certain images (e.g. the demonic dog). I also remember feeling somewhat ambiguous towards the resolution of the film, and I've actually wanted to revisit the movie to see how I like it a second time.
The Happening is the closest thing I've seen to a complete disaster. And yet, the film's last reel (i.e. the old woman in the house) ranks among Shyamalan's best work in what is arguably his worst film.
On a more positive note, you can call
The Sixth Sense,
Unbreakable,
Signs and
The Village modern masterpieces, and I won't bat an eyelid.
I don't know what's going on behind the scenes of Shyamalan's films, but I've heard a lot of reports and rumours about studio meddling and the like. Hopefully,
The Visit will prove that to be true, and maybe we can get another big budget Shyamalan blockbuster that actually
delivers on all the promise he has as one of Hollywood's best talents.
I'll totally read it one of these years.
