Lady in the Water - Latest by M. Night Shyamalan

myself | 7/22/2006 | Pyro7480

[Pyro7480]

Last night, I went to see the new movie written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, "The Lady in the Water." The critics almost universally panned it, and since I am a big fan of his movies since "The Sixth Sense," I decided to go see it.

As with all of his movies since "The Sixth Sense," the movie was really well-produced. Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard gave really good performances.

The plot, on the other hand, was probably the worst of the movies I've seen by him (my favorites being "Unbreakable" and "The Village" actually). It was definitely contrived at times, though it had thoroughly entertaining parts to it.

The movie opened in third place for the Friday box office figures, behind "Pirate of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" and "Monster House."

[Pyro7480]

Has anyone else seen it?

[ConservativeMind]

I won't catch it until release on DVD.

I have no incentive to spend money on a another lame attempt by him to conjure up another "Sixth Sense".

He needs to reorient his movies away from the massive surprise ending. He's not talented enough.

Perhaps later another "Sixth Sense" will come, but those kind of movies are rare, anyway. Hitchcock was one of the last to be able to succeed at that, and he had his lesser efforts, too.

[LdSentinal]

Why spend 10 bucks when I can watch old episodes of 'The Twillight Zone' on SciFi?

[Vision]

No, but considering he wants to be called "M. Night Shyamalan", I'm going to stay away. How about "I Am Egomaniac" with an inferiority complex.

[NormsRevenge]

Not yet but soon, looks kinds of scary, we hit the theater for Little Man tho.. good for a few laughs, the air conditioning gets 2 thumbs up. whew.

[FormerACLUmember]

I completely loved this flick. (Full disclosure: I am an unabashed M. Night Shyamalan fan!)

Paul Giamatti and Bob Balaban gave 5 star performances to boot.

[johnny7]

He looks scary... but his movies aren't. Give me a George Romero zombie movie anytime over Shyamalan's disjointed plots.

[Pyro7480]

He needs to reorient his movies away from the massive surprise ending. He's not talented enough.

This one had no surprise ending.

[Rocko]

The plot, on the other hand, was probably the worst of the movies I've seen by him

How could it be worse than Signs?

[MadLibDisease]

We had plans to see it tonight, not after your post.

[Rocko]

We had plans to see it tonight, not after your post.

Like you, I was considering it, but after seeing two turkeys (Signs and The Village), any good will generated by The Sixth Sense (on ABC Family channel tonight!) and Unbreakable now is gone. This thread settles it.

MNS isn't much of a writer, but unlike Hitchcock or Kubrick, he doesn't realize it.

[Pyro7480]

Sorry if I ruined it for you. :-\

[Pyro7480]

MNS isn't much of a writer, but unlike Hitchcock or Kubrick, he doesn't realize it.

I totally agree. He gives great direction, but he needs to find a good writer.

[Richard Kimball]

Most directors and writers have one or two original movies in them. After that, they're basically doing variations on a theme. M. Night Shantspellhislastname does suspense and the dark feeling of impending doom well. 6th Sense was his masterpiece, Unbreakable was very good, and I could overlook some of the problems with Signs, because I understood the overall point he was trying to make. The Village kind of lost me.

Where his strength is (IMHO) is that he understands that the anticipation of something happening is more terrifying than the actual occurrence. His weakness is that he wants to get to a point, and will sometimes write total absurdities into the plot to get to that point. In Signs, for example, the point was that even those things which happen to us that we see as bad sometimes have an ultimately good purpose. The girl leaving the water glasses everywhere was one of the bad things, the water being available to fight the aliens was the good thing. The absurdity was that aliens would want to take over a planet where 3/4 of the surface was acid to them, and it frequently rained acid all over the planet's surface.

[MadLibDisease]

LOL no you didn't ruin it, you helped actually. We'll just spend our money on a different, hopefully better, movie.

[Rocko]

The absurdity was that aliens would want to take over a planet where 3/4 of the surface was acid to them, and it frequently rained acid all over the planet's surface.

It amazes me that anyone over the age of six would think that was a good plot premise.

[John Will]

I loved Robot Chicken mocking him, with the skit, "WHAT A TWIST".

[Pyro7480]

I loved Robot Chicken mocking him, with the skit, "WHAT A TWIST".

LOL! That was pretty funny.

[Cyclopean Squid]

How could it be worse than Signs?

You mean the one where a race of aliens, far beyond human comprehension, decided to try to conquer a planet that is 70% covered with the one substance that could kill them?

[Rocko]

Yes. (See my post #16.)

Did anyone see the rerun of The Sixth Sense on ABC Family channel tonight? Quite odd there were no commercials for Lady in the Water.