I was sitting on the bus on the way to work and I was thinking to myself about how annoyed I was that M. Night Shyamalan had allowed himself to go so far down the tubes. I mean, as far as quality films go, the Sixth Sense was intriguing and I thought that his superhero movie Unbreakable was incredible. But then, foolish little kitten I was, I went to see signs in movie theatres and I was absolutley appalled by how bland and predictable it was. And then by the time I went to see the village...well, let's put it this way, I was laughing out loud by the end.

Here's the thing: Shyamalan's whole gimmick was his super-unexpected twist endings, and at first he pulled them off with a great deal of flair, cleverly leading the audience down an unexpected path. But I felt as though he got far too caught up with his surprise twist endings...So much in fact that it seemed that the twist ending became more important than the craft of the film or the screenplay itself. See: The Village.

I haven't even bothered to see Lady in the Water because I'm worried that I'll just be dissapointed. So what do you guys think? Is he overdone or does anyone think that he's still continuing to do well at what he does?

Ehm, I think, all of those movies you mentioned was made by different producers....:-/

I'm with you, M. Night Shyamalan's older stuff is great but his newer stuff is like he just threw a story together and called it quits. Lady in the Water doesn't even look appealing to me at all. Knowing M. Night's past movies its going to be utterly predictable and a let down. I was so hoping The Village would be a good movie, but man I was wrong. It was all peachy in the begining then after a while the viewers can just cetch on so easily. He's just become a major let down...

You can't blame him really. If you actually know what he wants to direct (ie Harry Potter, Life of Pi), youd see its not he who is gimmicky, but overbearing studios and producers who rely on formulas to sell movies. Sixth Sense succeeded and so did Unbreakable to some extent. After that, any producer willing to fund a M. Night movie would want another of the same gimmick since it worked before. Same could be said of movies like Matrix Reloaded.

Also in all truthfulness, I absolutely loved Signs and Lady In The Water. Village I agree with, was complete trash.

xEULt

ehm, I think, all of those movies you mentioned was made by different producers....:-/

Not talking about producer, but director. He did indeed direct all of them...Not particularly concerned with who produced them, it may have been the same person, it may not have been.

I really enjoyed the 6th sense, that movie was done really well. but from there they pretty much went down hill. i wasnt impressed with the village at all =\

I think that his recent movies aren't very good because we are expecting that twist ending that he is known for. We know that he is known for that so we try to pick up certain things during the movie so we wouldn't be surprised. It could be because we try to look for that unexpected twist ending thats it makes it hard to be surprised. I really liked the 6th Sense and Unbreakable. I didn't mind Signs very much and Lady in the Water was interesting. I don't mind his movies, they aren't the greatest thing every but I did enjoyed watching them. I think that they are creative and different in their own little way.

*rubs his forehead and sighs*

M. Night strikes me (this might be clever marketing) as a man trying to find his inner child and bring us all, snoozing and snoring, with him. Have you ever, as an adult, bought a coloring book to see if you could have the simple joy of creating a colorful scene? Lemme tell you, it's boring. It's cute for about five minutes to get a little box of crayons and lay on the floor, coloring. Then, you get bored.
That's the way I feel when I watch M. Night's movies. He's trying to write a story that you could tell a child to scare them to sleep at night . . . only he thinks we all care. Problem is, we don't all care about his storybook tomfoolery.
If he just interspersed the weird movies with a really great, inspiring adult story or even a departure (like an action movie or romance) he could get away with it. Look at Spielberg! A.I. is the same type of crap movie. Munich is a movie that was very limited in scope an interest base. However, the overwhelming quality of the man's work easily washes over a few sharp rocks.

Regards, Aaron

I like him and his books. I remember when The Village came out, everyone thought it was going to be some horror flik and were grossly disappointed when it wasn't. His movies aren't like everyone else's, most of which I took in a psychological way. In my abnormal psychology class, we are always looking his movies for examples. I did see Lady in the Water and I thought it was pretty good. A good movies isn't just dependent on the creator of the story line, a lot happens because of the director and the producer and what company is having their name stuck to the making of it.