What happened to M. Night Shyamalan?

[Alien Redrum]

So I'm watching The Happening last night, and oh my God what a piece of shit that is. This has got to be the worst directing of actors I've seen from an otherwise decent director I've seen in a long time.

Now, granted, while I own it, I haven't seen The Lady in the Water, but aside from that, the man has gotten steadily worse with each film since The Sixth Sense.

It's as if he's unlearning shit with each movie.

The Sixth Sense - 4.5/5 - Okay, sure it loses a lot of its rewatch factor after the reveal, but it's still a decent flick.
Unbreakable - 4/5 - Arguably, this is better than Sense, but it didn't have the amazing ending.
Signs - 2.5/5 - Some good shots (birthday party!), but the ending was fucking lame.
The Village - 2.5/5 - Stop it, we get it, you like twists.
The Happening - 2/5 - If I was Mark E. Mark's wife, I would have gone out for desert somewhere else too. This movie was almost pointless. ZOMG SAVE THE EARTH. fuck you.

He should have started with The Happening and went the other way.

[Blonde]

I hope he's retired. The Happening was a shit heap.

[Alien Redrum]

There were some awesome scenes in the happening (in particular, many of the death scenes), but holy shit. Did he fucking give the actors any direction at all? They were all so horrible. It's like he told them their motivation was to suck.

[K']

I have only seen SIGNS, THE VILLAGE and LADY IN THE WATER. I didn't care for Signs and Village, but really liked the Lady. I probably won't watch his other flicks intentionally.

[Alien Redrum]

You should at least see Unbreakable.

[walls]

Well your in for a real treat with Lady in the Water!

I liked the first 15 minutes or so of Happening but it just went to crap after the people started dropping.

Unbreakable was by far his best film with 6th coming in second followed by Village.

You didnt like Village? It wasnt great but it was at least worth a rental dont ya think?

[Alien Redrum]

You didnt like Village? It wasnt great but it was at least worth a rental dont ya think?

Barely a rental. By Village, he was trying entirely too hard to make a twist instead of concentrating a making a good movie, and the film suffered because of it.

Like all of his movies (some more than others), I enjoyed parts of it, but dude has been on a sure-but-steady decline since Unbreakable.

[shiki-jitsu]

I don't understand how people like Unbreakable. It's really not a good film.

Sixth Sense was his high point, after that it's pretty much shit, with The Happening being the worst.... although Lady In the Water is pretty damn bad too.

[LivingDeadGirl]

The Village is the only one of his movies that I own and I really liked it. The only other movie of his that I saw was Signs, and I thought it was just okay, nothing really that great.

[Spez]

I think the main problem that people had with The Village was that it didn't go along with the "theme" of his previous movies.

The Sixth Sense was a movie with a regular guy and something weird happens.
Unbreakable was a regular guy with strange powers all of a sudden.
Signs was a regular family with aliens.

The Village started off in that weird place and worked backwards. Nothing was normal from the get-go. It's the same reason that people don't like Jersey Girl out of Kevin Smith's movies. They were expecting more of the same and were annoyed that they got something different. I dug it though.

Lady in the Water is a fun movie too but you can't go into it expecting an M. Night movie. It's a fantasy / fairy book kind of movie that he made for his kids. You can't watch it expecting that Paul Giamatti is really the devil or a robot or something.

But The Happening totally sucked big time.

[shiki-jitsu]

I think the main problem that people had with The Village was that it didn't go along with the "theme" of his previous movies.

The Sixth Sense was a movie with a regular guy and something weird happens.
Unbreakable was a regular guy with strange powers all of a sudden.
Signs was a regular family with aliens.

The Village started off in that weird place and worked backwards. Nothing was normal from the get-go. It's the same reason that people don't like Jersey Girl out of Kevin Smith's movies. They were expecting more of the same and were annoyed that they got something different. I dug it though.

This really isn't the case. There are parts of The Village I like, I think it is well done for the most part... but this was another film (like Signs) where he starts placing himself not in a cameo, but in an integral part of the movie which really annoyed me. It takes you out of the film and he isn't a very good actor.

Bryce Howard was pretty good in it, but Joaquin Phoenix almsot singlehandedly destroys the movie with his whisper-acting. I am saying something important so i must say it quietly.

The Village is probably number two on my list behind Sixth Sense, but to say people didn't like it because it wasn't more of the same is not true. The film is actually very much so more of the same... too the point where people are annoyed by it.

[Alien Redrum]

I think the main problem that people had with The Village was that it didn't go along with the "theme" of his previous movies.

The Sixth Sense was a movie with a regular guy and something weird happens.
Unbreakable was a regular guy with strange powers all of a sudden.
Signs was a regular family with aliens.

The Village started off in that weird place and worked backwards. Nothing was normal from the get-go. It's the same reason that people don't like Jersey Girl out of Kevin Smith's movies. They were expecting more of the same and were annoyed that they got something different. I dug it though.

This really isn't the case. There are parts of The Village I like, I think it is well done for the most part... but this was another film (like Signs) where he starts placing himself not in a cameo, but in an integral part of the movie which really annoyed me. It takes you out of the film and he isn't a very good actor.

Bryce Howard was pretty good in it, but Joaquin Phoenix almsot singlehandedly destroys the movie with his whisper-acting. I am saying something important so i must say it quietly.

The Village is probably number two on my list behind Sixth Sense, but to say people didn't like it because it wasn't more of the same is not true. The film is actually very much so more of the same... too the point where people are annoyed by it.

I didn't necessarily hate The Village. The trailer was not very fair to it painting it as a horror film when it wasn't (although it certainly tried to be in some aspects).

My biggest problem with it is, as I said, he wasted time by trying his best with the twist. Enough with that nonsense already.

It had good moments though. Just one of his weakest films. Not like The Happening, though. That was just awful.

[Alien Redrum]

I meant to add, though, as far as Signs, even I can't deny the tinfoil hat scene.

[LivingDeadGirl]

I think the problem with The Happening is that when people go to see an M. Night movie, they don't go to have a message about some soci-political problem shoved down their throat. I mean, a movie about global warming...really? Why didn't he just make his own screwed-up version of The Day After Tomorrow?

[Spez]

I think the problem with The Happening is that when people go to see an M. Night movie, they don't go to have a message about some soci-political problem shoved down their throat. I mean, a movie about global warming...really? Why didn't he just make his own screwed-up version of The Day After Tomorrow?

No, the problem with the movie was that it sucked. A lot.