An M. Night Shyamalan thread

[Mr. Smith]

With his polarizing movies other than the highly-lauded Sixth Sense and utterly hated The Last Airbender, polarizing nature, AND a new film coming out.....why not?


Firstly, I will say that I've seen everything of his except for Praying With Anger.

My favorite movie I have to jump on the bandwagon and say The Sixth Sense, where every performance was good, the plot was excellently thought out, and it looks gorgeous.

My least has to go to After Earth, just because of how bland it turned out. Worst Will Smith performance, really horrible Jaden Smith performance completely forgettable performances elsewhere, generic imagery, and too many unforgivable plot holes. At least The Last Airbender had laughable dialogue and two passable performances by Dev Patel and the guy who played Iroh.


That's all just the tip of the iceberg here, what are your thoughts on his work?

[Antonio the Sixth]

All I've seen of him is The Sixth Sense, which was really as great as it's made out to be. I've heard good things about Unbreakable too, so maybe I'll give it a try some day.

The plot to Signs seems ridiculous enough to reach So Bad it's Good territory, and at least hearing Doug Walker tear it apart made me laugh really hard. Based on what I've heard of the films, I guess the worst might be either The Happening or The Last Airbender.

[DemPGH]

My opinion, and I've only seen his major stuff, is that he's over-hyped and certainly overrated, much like Wes Anderson. Im not one who sits back very often and says, "How the hell did they get anyone to green light that?!" but in the case of these two, I have tended to think that.

Unbreakable was an interesting concept, though, if you're into that sort of thing.

[exopolitician]

Awful, ever since he butchered Avatar: Last Airbender and then proceeded to go with plans to make a sequel. Can we switch him for Wes Craven, please?

[Mr. Smith]

It appears that The Visit might very well be a comeback, it's certainly getting some decent reviews.

Everything I've read about it seems to harken back to what his characterizations were before Lady in the Water which was his first film after The Village blew a gasket.

Apparently the kids do a great job, which sans The Last Airbender, always seem to have the best or really good performances in his movies. Even in The Happening, the kid was the best performance amidst the consistently nervous Marky Mark Wahlberg and big faced Zooey Deschanel.

[Bigby]

Awful, ever since he butchered Avatar: Last Airbender and then proceeded to go with plans to make a sequel. Can we switch him for Wes Craven, please?

At least he never made A Legend of Korra movie like he wanted to do.

[Enduro]

Unbreakable is his best film, and the only one of his I think is good.

Keep in mind that the only other 2 films of his I've seen is The Last Airbender and The Happening.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Unbreakable is his best film, and the only one of his I think is good.

Keep in mind that the only other 2 films of his I've seen is The Last Airbender and The Happening.

You need to see The Sixth Sense (and if you somehow have managed to avoid being spoiled about the plot, make sure it stays that way until you see it). It's really good.


Anyway, should I bother with The Visit? I've heard some cautiously good things about it.

[Bigby]

So I learned that Wayward Pines was influenced by M. Night Shyamalan, or at least the pilot was. Can anyone tell me if it's good or if it's bad?

[Mr. Smith]

So I learned that Wayward Pines was influenced by M. Night Shyamalan, or at least the pilot was. Can anyone tell me if it's good or if it's bad?

Depends on how much you like Twin Peaks

[Antonio the Sixth]

Just saw Unbreakable. It's definitely good, very clever and with a great atmosphere to it. At times I found it a bit slow and underacted in typical Shyamalan fashion (the worst moment was probably when the protagonists' wife asks if he cheated on her and he responds with a flat and emotionless "no"). Samuel Jackson's character is definitely the best thing about the movie, he managed to make him really fascinating and disturbing (though the "twist ending" was really obvious there, and I doubt it surprised anyone). Anyway, I really like the concepts that this movie explores, it's a very imaginative deconstruction of comic book tropes.

Good to know there's more to Shyamalan that the Sixth Sense and a slew of terrible movies.

[Cory]

The Visit was actually pretty good, even if the twist was predictable.

[Ban my account ffs!]

With his polarizing movies other than the highly-lauded Sixth Sense and utterly hated The Last Airbender, polarizing nature, AND a new film coming out.....why not?


Firstly, I will say that I've seen everything of his except for Praying With Anger.

My favorite movie I have to jump on the bandwagon and say The Sixth Sense, where every performance was good, the plot was excellently thought out, and it looks gorgeous.

My least has to go to After Earth, just because of how bland it turned out. Worst Will Smith performance, really horrible Jaden Smith performance completely forgettable performances elsewhere, generic imagery, and too many unforgivable plot holes. At least The Last Airbender had laughable dialogue and two passable performances by Dev Patel and the guy who played Iroh.


That's all just the tip of the iceberg here, what are your thoughts on his work?

I feel like you were being a bad mormon and engaged in hardcore caffeine abuse before you wrote this I mean not because it's bad or good or anything like but I mean it's just that it's like things are going all over not that that's bad but it's difficult like you know following storylines movies in a foreign language when you like.. half way through.

[Mr. Smith]

With his polarizing movies other than the highly-lauded Sixth Sense and utterly hated The Last Airbender, polarizing nature, AND a new film coming out.....why not?


Firstly, I will say that I've seen everything of his except for Praying With Anger.

My favorite movie I have to jump on the bandwagon and say The Sixth Sense, where every performance was good, the plot was excellently thought out, and it looks gorgeous.

My least has to go to After Earth, just because of how bland it turned out. Worst Will Smith performance, really horrible Jaden Smith performance completely forgettable performances elsewhere, generic imagery, and too many unforgivable plot holes. At least The Last Airbender had laughable dialogue and two passable performances by Dev Patel and the guy who played Iroh.


That's all just the tip of the iceberg here, what are your thoughts on his work?

I feel like you were being a bad mormon and engaged in hardcore caffeine abuse before you wrote this I mean not because it's bad or good or anything like but I mean it's just that it's like things are going all over not that that's bad but it's difficult like you know following storylines movies in a foreign language when you like.. half way through.

Well here's the twist to that:

Nope, still haven't had a cup of coffee  or anything really highly caffeinated to get that effect even once.

[Marokai Backbeat]

The Visit was actually pretty good, even if the twist was predictable.

Saw it last night, and I more or less agree with this. I can't decide if I'm a little twist-fatigued with him or not, because you go in expecting it and I feel like it sort of ruins my expectations. I was kinda hoping the movie would mostly be a sort of tongue-in-cheek tale about how kids just find old people scary and with the right music cues and whatever you can make that innocent childhood fear into something really scary, but then it just turns into a legit horror movie. But still, the kids were really great. I liked it, didn't love it, but it was pretty solid. More cursing than I expected for something rated PG-13.