M. Night Shyamalan: Career Review and Fan Discussion

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the career of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, focusing on his films, particularly "The Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable," "Signs," and "The Happening." Participants express their opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of his work, exploring themes of storytelling, plot twists, and overall enjoyment of his films.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express disappointment with "The Happening," citing weak scripting and an overabundance of death-related themes.
  • Many participants agree that "The Sixth Sense" is a standout film, with some considering it a classic.
  • There are mixed feelings about "Unbreakable," with some finding it engaging while others describe it as slow and predictable.
  • Opinions on "Signs" vary; some enjoyed it as a fun sci-fi film, while others found it ridiculous or disappointing.
  • Several participants note a perceived decline in the quality of Shyamalan's films after "The Sixth Sense," with references to "The Village" and "Lady in the Water" as examples of this decline.
  • Some argue that Shyamalan's twist endings have become formulaic and less impactful over time.
  • There is a suggestion that Shyamalan's storytelling style is predictable, yet some appreciate the creativity in his plots.
  • Participants discuss the effectiveness of watching DVD extras to enhance understanding and appreciation of the films.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree that "The Sixth Sense" is his best work, but there are multiple competing views regarding the quality and impact of his other films. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the overall trajectory of Shyamalan's career and the effectiveness of his storytelling techniques.

Contextual Notes

Some participants express personal biases based on their experiences or preferences, which may influence their views on the films. There are also references to specific audience reactions that highlight subjective interpretations of the films.

Ivan Seeking
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This guy could be one of the greats, but we just watched "The Happening", and were very disappointed. The script was weak, the story dragged, it was loaded with pseudoscience babble, and I thought he went overboard with the death stuff.

I saw The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, and I thought they all were great. Do we have any Shyamalan fans? I've heard that he had a couple of flops.

1992 Praying with Anger
1998 Wide Awake
1999 The Sixth Sense 6 4 2
2000 Unbreakable
2002 Signs
2004 The Village 1
2006 Lady in the Water
2008 The Happening
2010 The Last Airbender
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Night_Shyamalan
 
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I loved Sixth Sense, but The Villiage was so bad I wanted to drink strychnine just to put myself out of my misery.

I'm not much of a movie person - it seems the stories are so shallow and usually telegraph too much. It's hard for me to do what you need to do in order to enjoy a movie: suspend disbelief.
 
I liked the Sixth Sense, and I liked Unbreakable, but didn't like Signs. I haven't even heard of the other movies, so don't know anything about them.
 
Sixth sense was sort of scary the first time I saw it (i was 7 i think) but funny the second time. The Village was disappointing (the ending at least)...

I agree with Lisab about movies these days...Though I must recommend Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, it was great! (sorry for the brief sidetrack)
 
I loved the Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. I think they will become classics.

After that, I think his films have been going down hill.
 
I liked the Sixth Sense, disliked Signs, and couldn't even watch more than part of Unbreakable, and I've tried 3 times, I just kept walking off and forgetting it was on. The others I haven't even seen.
 
The guys movies don't change. It is a cracked out plot always ending in some absurd twist you would never expect. I like signs and sixth sense though. Note I'm not saying he is a bad director, just predictable now.
 
being unpredictable can get pretty predictable.
 
I've never particularly enjoyed any of his movies. Sixth Sense was pretty good. Unbreakable and The Village weren't bad. Those are the only ones I have seen. I don't see anything particularly special about any of them though. I've read enough 'twist endings' in books that they are generally not terribly exciting anymore, and fairly formulaic. It takes a really great writer to put twists into a story that you really don't see coming and at the same time don't simply come out of nowhere.
 
  • #10
Sixth Sense really did have one of the best twist endings ever at the time. We've seen so many since then and have become so sick of them that looking back it doesn't seem as great as it was at the time. The only movie that did it better was probably that one with Forrest Whitaker where the girl was a guy.
 
  • #11
Lady in the Water was...strange to say the least. It had a mix of comic book characters. (the weak, the strong, the wizardish person)
The only interesting things that looked cool were the scrunts http://www.bizbash.com/content/editorial/mediafiles/e6476rectangularscrunt.jpg

When I saw the, "making of the movie," it had shown how these were made. They were actually not computer generated for the most part. For the movie, they had to create life size moving models, that would run and growl with a remote control..awesome.
 
  • #12
I knew the story of the Sixth Sense before I watched it. :cry: But the film is definitely one of my favourites. I like the expected-the-unexpected factor (or twists) of his movies. I didn't like the way Signs ended, but it certainly ended in a way that I did not expect Shyamalan to end it. The Village was okay. Those are the movies I've seen so far.
 
  • #13
Six Sense was his only classic. He is creative, but for whatever reason he can't seem to fully develop any of his other movies. I watched "The Happening" a few days ago and like all his other movies, it had a creative and interesting start to the plot with great atmosphere. However as the movie went on it just got goofy and boring with no real climax. At the end you just end up shrugging.
 
  • #14
Greg Bernhardt said:
... He is creative, but for whatever reason he can't seem to fully develop any of his other movies. I watched "The Happening" a few days ago and like all his other movies, it had a creative and interesting start to the plot with great atmosphere. However as the movie went on it just got goofy and boring with no real climax. At the end you just end up shrugging.

Yes, at first it seemed very promising as SciFi goes, but then it just died.

He writes all of this himself.
 
  • #15
I once heard a suggestion that he's working his way down the hits ladder.

Sixth Sense was the best of his career.
Then Unbreakable was good.
Then Signs was OK.
Then The Village was terrible.
 
  • #16
DaveC426913 said:
I once heard a suggestion that he's working his way down the hits ladder.

Very good point.

Sixth Sense was the best of his career.
Then Unbreakable was good.
Then Signs was OK.
Then The Village was terrible.

I would say that Signs were already weak. Otherwise seems like we all agree that Sixth Sense was his best.
 
  • #17
I tend to give him more credit on both Unbreakable, and Signs. Like the SS, both stories begged to be cheesy, but he managed to keep it serious. Particularly impressive was his ability to make a good film using the Unbreakable plot. I expected something more along the lines of Spider Man, but was pleasantly surprised. To me, it seems the real danger that he faced was that the movie would be boring... Like The Happening.

Signs was fun - a modern War of the Worlds. How could I not like it? :biggrin: And I think he deserves a special award for making a good Sci Fi without using any significant special effects. And it actually had a plot beyond {insert computer generated garbage here}!
 
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  • #18
You know what can make his movies better? Watch the DVD Extras. they always point out things I hadn't realized while watching the movie.
 
  • #19
I think that the Sixth Sense was the best twist ending I have seen, and Signs and Unbreakable were utterly rediculous.
 
  • #20
Crosson said:
I think that the Sixth Sense was the best twist ending I have seen, and Signs and Unbreakable were utterly rediculous.
What was wrong with Unbreakable?
 
  • #21
DaveC426913 said:
What was wrong with Unbreakable?

I found the first 99% of the movie to be slow, boring, and pointless, and then the 'twist' in the last 2 minutes of the film was totally devoid of believability. As the true nature of "Mr Glass" is revealed I found myself chuckling and wondering if I had fallen asleep and was imagining a nonsense ending to the movie I had been watching.
 
  • #22
Crosson said:
I found the first 99% of the movie to be slow, boring, and pointless,
Huh. We must have watched two different movies. I felt it was like a almost superhero that could occur in real life (rather than sci-fi).
 
  • #23
Unbreakable was (IMO) predictable, but still a good watch (although we also just like our disabled son to see movies with people in wheelchairs, so there's some inherent bias here).

Sixth Sense was amazing.

The best part of Signs? My stepson wanting to see it SO bad on DVD and then doing exactly as we predicted (getting scared and getting sent to bed). Love that first view of the alien creeping around... scaring him, tempting him to continue bearing his fears, but eventually he caves and gets happily banned :-p. So yes, fun sci-fi. But man... those aliens must be dumb to land on "The Blue Planet."

I did like the recent The Happening despite myself. The plant-connection is pure cheese and some of the acting isn't great. The kiddo is way too-adjusted at the end of the film (as her parents are dead and she's stuck in the middle of dysfunctional Marky-Mark and Alma). Nonetheless, I like the idea of calm, methodical, relatively-endless mass-suicide.

That's my experience... not a full-fledged fan (enough to actively seek out all his films), but a decent fan (enough to watch them when opportunity arises).
 
  • #24
Crosson said:
I found the first 99% of the movie to be slow, boring, and pointless, and then the 'twist' in the last 2 minutes of the film was totally devoid of believability. As the true nature of "Mr Glass" is revealed I found myself chuckling and wondering if I had fallen asleep and was imagining a nonsense ending to the movie I had been watching.
I never got to the ending. I tried watching it 3 times and it was so boring I'd end up leaving during a commercial and forgetting it was even on. So next time I should just tune into the last two minutes I guess.

Signs was very disappointing. I bought the video and was so angry after I watched it because it turned out so corny that I threw the video in the trash. And I never throw anything away. It was that bad.
 
  • #25
physics girl phd said:
those aliens must be dumb

That's one of the things. I don't like movies in which I am treated like a blind idiot, who will not see obvious holes in the plot. I have no problem with accepting convention or strange ideas, as long as they are logically consistent. But aliens that came to Earth to kill people, and are not able to deal with guy armed with a wooden bat? Sorry, but no.
 
  • #26
Borek said:
That's one of the things. I don't like movies in which I am treated like a blind idiot, who will not see obvious holes in the plot. I have no problem with accepting convention or strange ideas, as long as they are logically consistent. But aliens that came to Earth to kill people, and are not able to deal with guy armed with a wooden bat? Sorry, but no.

Just out of curiosity, how was this different than a human being left alone with a pack of lions? Humans are superior and could conquer a planet of lions, but it left alone without a weapon, the superior species would be helpless.

I normally pick movies apart to no end, but I don't understand the objections on this one.

Also, why was the Sixth Sense so much better than the rest. I would probably rate Signs as high as the SS. And, frankly, the ending of the SS wasn't a surprise. :biggrin: But, any more, surprise endings that are surprising are rare these days.
 
  • #27
Ivan Seeking said:
Just out of curiosity, how was this different than a human being left alone with a pack of lions? Humans are superior and could conquer a planet of lions, but it left alone without a weapon, the superior species would be helpless.

Will you try to conquer a planet full of lions without a weapon? Not even small laser/maser/phaser/whatever in your pcket, just in case? Besides, that's not a first day they are fighting humans, so they have already learned the hard way we have knifes, guns, pitchforks and flamethrowers. Yet they are walking the planet barehanded. Idiots :devil:
 
  • #28
Borek said:
Will you try to conquer a planet full of lions without a weapon?

Try tickling under the chin. Lions love cuddling.
 
  • #29
I have seen them all and was disappointed by all of them. I guessed the endings of all of them based purely on the fact that I knew the ending was not going to be the one he was suggesting. He tries to be deep and intellectual but ends up just giving irrelevant information and destroying the flow of the story.