M. Night Shyamalan - Creative Genius or One Hit Wonder?

[DentedMalteser]

I know, I know, before you go all 'Signs' and 'Unbreakable' etc on me, I am referring to the Shyamalan films that were any good.

One of them. The Sixth Sense.

Groundbreaking (for Hollywood) stuff that spawned a multitude of pretenders, 'The Others' is a classic example. Recently 'L'Orfanato' even has elements of this also.

I don't deny that the Sixth Sense was an excellent and absorbing piece of cinema, but do we really believe that Shyamalan has done himself any credit with the work he has produced since?

He wrote the screenplay for Stuart Little, bless him.

Then came 'Unbreakable'. Bruce Willis should have stopped at Sixth Sense and Samuel Jackson was ruefully wasted as Elijah Price. Robin Wright Penn was excrutiatingly one-dimensional. Even her limited turns in 'The Last Castle' and 'Beowulf' were more convincing.

He followed this with 'Signs'. Bruce had obviously learnt his lesson and steered well clear of this one. The horror film that never was. I don't mind films about faith, but to hype them as horror just smacks of clutching at straws. As a venture for Mel Gibson, it was quite a treat. For everyone else, including Joaquin Phoenix, it was pedestrian, given the talent available.

Then 'The Village'. By this time, we have all become used to the twist in his tales. This, like Signs, would have been better served as a Twilight Zone episode. Phoenix again is limp and by the end of it, you are just wishing they would all fall down that hole in the forest. I personally would have liked to have seen a McDonalds on the other side of that wall. Now that's what you could have called irony. This time, it's the turn of Bryce Dallas Howard to make the first of two movies with him.

'The Lady In the Water' comes next, with Howard no longer blind, but having a completely different handicap of being a water-nymph. Paul Giamatti is desperate to make something of his part and nearly does his talent justice, but is hampered by woeful scripts and a lack of vision on the part of the director.

In June of this year, we will get 'The Happening' with Mark Wahlberg. The story of a couple that start to witness their friends, neighbours and total strangers killing themselves for no apparent reason, just like a mental plague. Who can imagine the cause of all this?

The question is should we really be bothered?

Shymalan made one good movie (his third one, incidentally) and has been riding on the back of this success ever since. Each time, his movies have become progressively more predictable and he seems to me to be drowning in his own previous glories.

The critics have been both kind and savage in turns about his movies and I think I'm now at the point that I have his number, and that 'The Happening' will be a pile of dirty fat man's pants.

So tell me, movie lovers, is he a misunderstood (by me) genius, or a charlatan disguised as a writer and director who only pretends to know what he's doing? Surely he can only trade on the one good movie for so long?

Doesn't it also say something that the best actors he's had at his disposal have only ever worked with him twice, at best? And always one film after another? Are they seeing the light of day and escaping as soon as they get the chance?  

[RedWhiteBlack]

Well, what have we here? This is quite the question you are posing. Is M. Night Shyamalan a one trick pony, or is he a creative genius, and we're all too stupid to recognize it?

My stance: he is neither. "The Sixth Sense" was a nice movie. Groundbreaking, entertaining, gripping, with lots of twists and turns: everything a good thriller needs. But, for me, "Unbreakable" is my favorite of his movies.

Now, don't take that as me saying "I've enjoyed everyone of Shyamalan's movies". "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" are the only two of his movies that I enjoyed. I watched about half of "Lady in the Water", just barely made it through "The Village", and was disappointed by "Signs". What happened? Why do his movies get progressively worse?

I attribute it to the Hollywood Curse. This is a curse that falls upon the most careless of new directors. They get a taste of success, and try to duplicate it by recycling some of the ideas they used in their first success. Now, 9 times out of 10, these ideas are constantly used by the director throughout most of their movies, because it has become their trademark. Quentin Tarantino has his out of sequence storytelling, Brian De Palma has the split screen shot, Martin Scorsese has the shaky cameras, and M. Night Shyamalan has the twist ending.

Most of time, it works for them. In Shyamalan's case, it just hinders his movies. Would it be too much for him to make one movie that doesn't have a twist ending? Tarantino removed his trademark for "Jackie Brown", and in Scorsese's "The Departed", I don't recall much of the shaky camera, but, then again, he does it so well, I could have missed it. Is this too much to ask? I think it should clean up his writing abilities, and maybe will let him focus on equally dividing his efforts across the entire movie, instead of focusing just on his ending.  

[Aegean_Kassan]

Unbreakable : his superhero movie
Sixth Sense: His horror movie
Signs: His Sci Fi movie
The village: his period piece
Lady in the Water: his fantasy.
The movies are different, and if you prefer only one or two types of movies, of course you won't like the others as well. Plus, his movies are more intellectual than some of the other movies and therefore annoying to some people. You don't want to have to wonder if something you are seeing is important to the plot. In his case the answer is always yes. I just enjoy the movie the first time through and worry about all the clues later.  

[Niran_Betta_Fish]

Full disclosure: I went to high school with him. no we weren't friends, but it was a small school and we had classes together etc.. He was a nice guy and I wish him well, so I might be biased.

I loved Sixth Sense and Lady in the Water. unbreakable was watchable, but nothing much. Signs was boring, the Village predictable. (The costuming gave the plot away in the first five minutes or so.)  

[Ty Phoxx]

I simply love Shyamalan's movies! They are all so awesome, in different ways. The only one I liked less was Unbreakable, but I saw it when I was much younger, and was a bit disturbed by some of the images.

Signs and Sixth Sense are my favorite. I enjoy tense movies like that.

The Village had great acting in it. Lady in the Water disappointed me a bit, the only thing that made me jump was the sprinklers going on.

The reason we have a tendency to think that his movies are getting worse is because he has a slow style, but he usually reverses this effect at the very end, with an unseen turnabout. And lately, the turnabouts have been getting less surprising.

Is he a genius? Yes and no. Alfred Hitchcock was a genius, and Shyamalan bases a lot of his style on him. So he's a copycat genius (which is not pejorative in this case).  

[GummiBearRomance]

I think he's a creative genius.
he's the Albert Hitchcock of this generation.
the themes of his story lines don't scream duh, and he places his self in all his movies, just as Hitcock.

I honestly can say that I'm afraid of birds because of the movie Birds.

plus the newer generations need movies that make them think.  

[Solid Arm]

I liked Unbreakable; interesting premise if nothing else.  

[Orangeeful]

Genius. He moves me in ways only wes Anderson could! and that's saying something.  

[bobfredgeorge05]

Shyamalan does great work. Some of the movies he has created are a little iffy, like Signs, but for the most part they are enjoyable.

I personally loved Unbreakable. Bruce Willis is one of my favorite actors. I also liked The Village because it kept me hanging until the end. Maybe that shows that I wasn't paying attention to the movie or whatever but I liked it.

Lady in the Water was quite interesting. I think I might have to watch it again to give good feedback on it.

Sixth Sense was great but its abused. So many people have abused the the little boy's most famous phrase of "I see dead people" (i.e. Scary Movie) but it was a well made film.

I think he is a Genius that needs to rethink some of his ideas. Someone must love his work since he still makes movies.  

[rocksteadyandbebop]

I have always liked M. Night Shyamalan movies.
Majority of the time I have to go to the movies alone to watch his movies because none of my friends likes his movies. For some odd reason I am always drawn into his stories. I love it and Im surprised to see I'm not the only one who likes him.
I can't wait for his new movie to come out.  

[morbid_beauty]

He only had one good movie...Sixth Sense. "The Happening" Mark Whalberg will make that movie happen...  

[Foolkiller]

Shymalan is s**t. He has no eye for scenery, can't generate tension worth one damn and his flicks play like a Sunday night movie.
His casting reeks. Bloody stories really are transparent to an old-skull horror fan such as myself.

He may have everyone else confused but I see him as slop artist. One wrung-out cliche after another. Painfully obvious " plot -twists" and his style is just plain flat.

I could also provide an extensive list of earlier movies that ol' nighty has ripped off so far.