Talk about making it too easy

[yendi]

I'm a fan of M. Night Shyamalan, one of the few who stuck around through his more recent films. But after nearly undercutting Lady In the Water before it came out with the stupid "Narf" business (I still want to see a film about faeries called "Poits"), his latest film is The Happening. I'll bet there are dozens of critics lining up for the opportunity to write a review using a line like, "the twist in The Happening is that nothing ever happens."

The man needs a good advisor. And to not act in any more of his films.

Comments

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

Oh! Oh! And they get to make hippy jokes about the 60's too, I bet! Hurray for predictable critics! Although really, when someone just hands you that stuff, how could you resist?

[boutell.livejournal.com]

Exactly... only it's more of a beat thing, right? "Hey daddy-o, I'm going to eat your brains! Scoop diddly BOP!"

[bassfingers.livejournal.com]

They could have called it The Be-In, with the ironic twist being that the natural disaster was caused by bees...

[fmi-agent.livejournal.com]

I can't resist saying "This is my happening and it freaks me out!", myself -- M. Night is evidently providing more opportunities for that.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

I hope the title changes. I actually liked the first title (The Green Effect).

And I liked The Village enough that I dreamed about it at least once, so as much as Shyamalan frustrated me with Signs and Unbreakable I still root for the guy. (Haven't seen The Lady in the Water yet, though the siren song of wet Bryce Dallas Howard might make it too hard to resist.)

I actually remember hearing someone's suggestion (I wish I remember who said it) that Shyamalan would be a great choice to direct a Harry Potter film. I think that'd be great, too; he *is* one of the best current directors at working with young people, after all...

[yendi]

I adored Unbreakable, but found The Village to be too predictably (although Howard really was amazing in it). And yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing Shyamalan on a Potter film, either. As long as he doesn't cast himself as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

[tru2myart.livejournal.com]

Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Uhh...I think so Brain, but where are we going to get rubber pants in our size? Narf! Poit!

They're dinky they're Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain.

[lokilokust.livejournal.com]

'And to not act in any more of his films.'
that's what really killed 'lady in the water' for me.
and not just his pisspoor 'acting.'
but casting himself as 'teh man who will save the world!!!1!'

[dangerdean.livejournal.com]

I think he's fine acting in his films, as long as he isn't onscreen for more than about fifteen seconds

[yendi]

Yeah, that'd be okay, too.

[windswept.livejournal.com]

Yup.

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

i'm convinced that the "m." in "m. night" stands for mary sue.

[coffeeinhell.livejournal.com]

He lost me with The Village, but I honestly didn't understand why Lady in the Water was torn apart the way it was. Unless it was simply backlash. But then I thought Signs was misunderstood, too. ("Where the hell are all the aliens and explosions? This is supposed to be about aliens, gosh durn it!")

The biggest problem with Lady in the Water, as I opined to a friend, was that Shyamalan seemed to be under the impression that he'd made this story up all by himself and it was fresh and new. While it wasn't as clever as he thought it was, I thought it was done quite well. And as a big fane of Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, I'll keep giving him chances ... at least until he makes another movie as awful as The Village.

[blazingmoogle.livejournal.com]

I could not get into "Lady in the Water". Much of the acting was painful to watch.

"Signs"

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

I should admit that part of my frustration with Signs isn't fair to the film: it was a story about a giant event with world-changing consequences as seen from ordinary people's POV, coming out after 9/11, a giant event with world-changing consequences that all of us ordinary people saw (via media, at least) because we were alive when it happened. I realized that, when I watched Signs, I'd been subconsciously comparing and contrasting how I'd related to 9/11 and how the characters related to the aliens. So at some level it didn't ring true to me, but that's not the film's fault because Shyamalan wrote it beforehand. (IMDb says 9/11 was the day the crew shot the farewell scene between Gibson's farmer and his wife.)

(Understand, I sort of wanted Men In Black II to be redone to somehow mention 9/11, at least acknowledging that the world of 2002 was different from the world of 1997. So apart from my multiple problems with MIB II was this overarching desire of mine that simply wasn't going to be met.)

And I think my frustration with Unbreakable came from wanting more, especially since I'd heard the rumors of it being the first of three films. But there are some perfect moments, visually and aurally (it reminded me of how good James Newton Howard is on M. Night's films) that have stuck with me after only seeing it once on first release.

[windswept.livejournal.com]

I like his films, and critics just don't get him. Period. And nothing he ever does will satisfy them, because they see him only in context of "the twist" in TSS, which does him a great disservice. He is much more than a one-trick pony, but if you're only looking for that trick, done exactly the way it was done the first time it delighted you so, you'll never be satisfied.