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M. Night Shyamalan

The big problem with Lady in the Water is that he takes a lot of shortcuts to move the story forwards. Children might not notice, but as an adult that can pretty much ruin the story for you.
 
The big problem with Lady in the Water is that he takes a lot of shortcuts to move the story forwards. Children might not notice, but as an adult that can pretty much ruin the story for you.


I thought the movie was just choppy, as if spliced together in someone's garage. I also agree with your thoughts about Signs. We had lots of people tell us how wonderful it was, and we just looked at eachother in disbelief when we got out of the theatre. Sixth Sense was terrific though, very memorable. I also loved The Village..Unbreakable was ok, but not my favorite.
 
The thing that killed LitW for me was (attn: HUGE spoiler alert!!!)
the whole plot line involving the movie critic. I mean, come on!! How obvious could Shyamalan have been? First, the critic is a complete jerk, then he is 100% wrong about everything when asked to predict how the movie will end, and then he is unceremoniously killed. Barf! I just went, "OK, I get it, you hate critics. This isn't going to endear them to you at all"... LOL.

Yes, Signs slaps you in the face with its "message." He could have removed the whole spiritual aspect of the film and he wouldn't have lost anything; I even think the movie would have been better without that bit. But it still creeps me out every time that alien walks across the TV screen, I still laugh when the whole family is sitting in the living room with their tin-foil hats perched on their heads, and I still sit on the edge of my seat when they get stuck in the basement.

I think after you have heard SO many times that a movie is great, your expectations become unrealistic and then the film can never live up to them. (I hope that makes sense) Would you ever be willing to try watching it again?
 
Would you ever be willing to try watching it again?

Not sure who you're talking to here, but speaking for myself, the movie becomes more annoying the more I watch it. Unbreakable, on the other hand, keeps getting better.

Go figure.
 
There was one thing in "Lady in the Water" that really annoyed me and that was the Shyamalans character and the Critic. The movie critic is the only character in the movie with no redeeming qualities and everything he says turns out to be wrong, while Shymalan plays a Jesus character that will save the world. But ofcourse his genious will only be recognized after his death.

A not so subtle comment on the way his recent movies have been recieved.
 
I love the answers in here. Everyone's taste is so different. I think Unbreakable was by far his best and Lady was by far the worst. Signs preaching and the way the aliens die made a potentially great movie bad. With all his potential I can't wait for the next movie. Hope it's not another letdown.
 
I have been trying for days to get into Lady in the Water. I haven't gotten far into it (after trying a couple times) and I guess I'm just annoyed with the slow pace and and the boring characters. On a side note, the stuttering is driving me NUTS and I hope it comes to an end soon.

I have to admit that I liked both The Village and Unbreakable.
 
I'm a Shyamalan fan, yes, but I'm surprised at the love for Lady in the Water I'm finding in this topic. In any case, here are my takes on the films by him that I've seen:

The Sixth Sense

Easily one of my top movies that I've ever seen. The way he told the story with the cinematography was just incredible, and Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment (one of the best child actors EVER) completely stole the show. The plot twist, though everybody knows that it's going to BE there going into the movie, caught me and everybody I know completely off-guard, and overall the movie was just completely mind-blowing.

Signs

Wasn't a big fan. Yes, I liked Mel Gibson, I thought he did a splendid job, but I was expecting to be scared, and that didn't seem to be the point of the movie. It was more of a... sort of ominous feel the movie had, but not exactly frightening, if you take my meaning. Good movie, but nowhere near Shyamalan's best.

The Village

I actually loved this movie. Not as good as The Sixth Sense, but it was frightening enough to keep me on the edge of my seat, and overall, it was actually cinematographically his best-told movie. Technically, this movie was excellent, but it just didn't have the aesthetic feel and the superb acting that The Sixth Sense had. Still an excellent movie, though, that I would give a high rating to.

Lady in the Water

All right. What the hell was Shyamalan thinking with this movie. It was so bad I was laughing at it the entire way through... it was interesting in the way that a car crash on the side of the road might be interesting. You stop and watch it, and are interested by it, but after you leave, you say, "That was just awful," and are done with it. If you want to read my full review of this pathetically bad movie, it's on Amazon, if you select to read one-star reviews only, it's the seventh one down (for now), and it's written by "Kyle Bolme".

I've never seen Unbreakable or Wide Awake, but they're both on my list.
 
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