MovieChat Forums > M. Night Shyamalan Discussion > Excellent director

Excellent director

posted 5 years ago by AnubisRaydeen (7897)
15 replies | jump to latest

The guy has a few sub-par films and everyone pretends that they always thought he sucked. It became trendy to hate on him after that Robot Chicken episode with him saying "tweest." Now there is this hive-mind mentality where it is the thought-free response to dislike M Night. A similar thing happened with the movie Titanic. The popularity backlash gives people some reason to feel that they are cool for going against the flow.
The man directs very well.

The only movies that he made that are "bad" are the following:

The Happening: Starts brilliantly but is ultimately sunk by the main characters. Strangely, the supporting cast deliver some excellent performances (I'm no Leguizamo fan but he was great). The story itself is even decent. Plant life developing a defense system against human overcrowding is very cool. Studies had recently revealed that suicides had a particular chemical makeup in their brains not present in other dead people. Connecting the bee die-off, the suicide chemical, and plant defense is a great story idea. Would have been better as a 1 hr Twilight Zone.

Lady in the Water: Based on a fairy tale he made up on the spot to tell his kids as a bedtime story. So knowing this, one can be at least a little forgiving of the very light story. But it wasn't good. This movie is only good for the thing that Night does exceedingly well: characters. The rich line-up of characters are charming. It is like this is the opposite of The Happening. Not a "good" movie but it has enough quality to it to elevate it above your average dumb popcorn flick.

The Last Airbender: To me, this is his only truly awful movie. The source material is a fantastic cartoon series that delivered three perfect seasons. The film loses all of the heart of the original which mystifies me. Night is very very good at "heart." Hard for me to be objective here since the comparison is damning. I really hated this movie.

The rest of his catalog is great. Not flawless but high quality IMO. Night haters are band-wagoners who complain about "twists" but only if they are in his movies.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I would consider him a good director, not quite excellent in my opinion. I liked The Happening and would rate it a 7/10 and enjoyed The Lady in the Water and would also rate it a 7/10. I haven't seen The Last Airbender.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 5 years ago

I tried watching The Lady in the Water, and just couldn't get into it. Oh well, I tried.

[–] kuku (3510) 5 years ago

He's quite good. Excellent? That's probably a bit too much. but he's clearly above the average.

He knows how to create amazing scenes (the beginning of The Happening is one of the best I've seen). He's very good creating intrigue. BUT he has flaws too, and some of them are big. The characters in his stories never feel real, they feel like puppets in a story where the only thing that matters is the plot twist. You get involved in his stories, but rarely with his characters. For me, that's his biggest flaw. Hitchcock, for example, was extremely good creating intrigue, but that never prevented him of creating engaging characters.

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 5 years ago

I cannot view Joaquin Phoenix and Dallas Bryce Howard in The Village as "story puppets." Those two had a palpable connection and were well portrayed characters. There are other examples. However, I agree with you in regard to The Happening. The characters in the Happening are exactly as you say.

[–] kuku (3510) 5 years ago

The Village is my favorite movie from Shyamalan (even more than 6th sense), so it's difficult for me to disagree with that ^_^ Any case, I guess having good characters (while keeping the usual Shyamalan best features) is what makes that movie so likable (at least for me).

[–] howgamer (3644) 5 years ago

I would agree for the most part. He has some great films and some real stinkers like After Earth. I think his early and more recent work has been quite fantastic, but the stuff in between wasn't very good. I feel like most of his films are one extreme or the other; either they are outstanding or awful. Overall, I think he is solid director and certainly capable of producing an excellent film as he has already shown.

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 5 years ago

Oops, I forgot about After Earth. I never think of it as a Shyamalan film. I associate it solely with Smith. It was pretty bad too. So ... EDIT: Last Airbender AND After Earth are the films by Night that I don't like at all.

[–] ghostrider38 (1034) 5 years ago

I agreed with The Last Airbender. worst movie ever. thank god they didn't make the sequels.

[–] CheekyMonkey (584) 4 years ago

He's brilliant...

He knows his genre well and has make so many quality, fun and entertaining movies...
- Sixth Sense (modern classic... introduce "I see dead people" meme, before there were memes)
- The Village (huanting, beautiful movie... very appropriate for our current times)
- Signs (emotional, heartfelt, conspiratorial, thrilling...). Validates the genuine fear of the unknown and the effecacy of being prepared and looking at the subtexts...
- Unbreakable... (especially without the sequels... A refreshingly cinematic take on the comicbook movie)

And so on... I'll watch any movie he makes... They're usually fun, well made and even when he misses the mark (e.g. The Happening) they have some great parts/themes...

Also, the level of craft he brings to his movies towers above filmmakers today... He was at a high level even compared to his contemporaries, but today, he's just better (see the cut scenes, etc.. referred to in posts above)...

[–] rateater (9226) 3 years ago

some of the films he made are great and i like him as a director because of those ones.

[–] Gd5150 (11009) 3 years ago

I agree he’s done some great work. No director is perfect or even close.

[–] TandyMan (10358) 3 years ago

He's an amazing director. He's a hack writer.