Open Forum Friday: M. Night Shyamalan… Genius or One Trick Pony?
With the release of M. Night Shyamalan’s latest movie in theatres this weekend, I thought it was a good time to start a debate about his talents as a filmmaker. I know people are very divided on this issue… some people love him while others hate him. I do notice over time, however, there seems to be a heck of a lot more people growing tired of his schtick. For me personally, it wasn’t until Signs that I became a big fan of Shyamalan, and now after The Village I find myself defending him a lot more than I should have to. Let me lay my feelings out on the table: M. Night Shyamalan is an extremely gifted filmmaker. He is building himself up to be the next Hitchcock, and although that may be a little presumptious of him, I think he could actually measure up over time. His stories and dialogue are sometimes a little contrived, but his ability to create tension is almost without equal. He does have a bit of an ego (like any good hotshot filmmaker), what with his trademark cameo apperances, not to mention the fact that every movie he does is now conspicuously labelled as being “M. Night Shyamalan’s”. I am interested to see what Lady in the Water brings, and all the negative reviews only make me more curious. Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday… is M. Night Shyamalan truly a genius, or just a hack who got lucky with The Sixth Sense?
Comments (14)
Shyamalan has a gift for creating ‘movie moments’ that end up being parodied on the internet, in Scary Movie sequels, etc, etc…
noone can tell me he doesnt put effort into what he does, he considers color, themes, usually casts quite well, etc
but after the Sixth Sense’s financial success, I think (and the DVD features for that and Unbreakable talking about how the films perform at the box office) made it obvious that uh oh, this guy has an ego, and that is the true wrench that I think ends up in his films.
Here’s a guy with legitimate talent who was told it so often and had so much success so fast, he started to buy his own hype. He’s not humble…
I’m actually willing to bet Lady in the Water isn’t as bad as the reviews its getting. Hell, the Village wasnt as bad as its reviews, there are enough people out there who hype themselves up for his ending and dont pay attention to the movie, and the Village was smarter than people gave it credit for, and actually I enjoyed it at the theater cuz I lowered my standards…
So this new movie may actually be nonsensical, pretentious, silly, but I bet i’ll be entertained on some level, and I’m certainly not painting all critics this way, but I think a few reviews are being tainted by the fact that the movie has Shyamalan as a writer “good guy” vs a villain who happens to be the local film critic.
its like he wrote an excuse for the films failure into the movie!
Posted by Goon on July 21st, 2006The man has talent. He’s extremely gifted and unique… but his last two attempts have been terrible. The stories are just… so… dumb. I’m all for unbelievability and stretching my imagination, but it’s just as if he decided to write a movie about the first weird idea he could come up with.
Plus, I can’t stand his attitude. There is no reason he has to be humble, but just don’t be a jerk.
Posted by Jonathan on July 21st, 2006Shyamalan is one of those few directors that releases films that are, at least in my eyes, looked at as ‘events’. The style is so distinct, and you know something interesting will be brought to the table. The same goes for Spielberg, Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, and so on. This doesn’t necissarily mean that Shyamalan is on par with those directors.
I really liked Signs. Watching that in the theatre was a pretty exciting experience and garnered the hugest audience reaction i’ve ever seen in terms of screams and scares. I didn’t think The Village was as bad as everyone made it out to be. I think Goon is right, everyone sits there waiting for the ending and trying to figure it all out, ignoring the actual film in the process.
Ego aside, i’ve yet to hate one of his films, and i’m looking forward to seeing Lady In The Water.
Posted by Jay C. on July 21st, 2006The guy is a fucking hack. His technical “talent” hardly makes up for his condescension and moronic storytelling methods. The Sixth Sense was okay, but it was all downhill after that… culminating in the The Village, which was hilariously horrible. The best(worst) part was the amatuerish (that’s putting it lightly) use of slow motion. And the twist… oh god, the whole story even. I’m actually hoping Lady in the Water is worse, which it seems like it probably is (if we can believe the critics). I’m sneakin’ into that one and am fully prepared to enjoy a trainwreck.
Posted by Boooo. on July 21st, 2006i’m not saying the ‘twist’ was mindblowing, but i dont get why the Village twist bothers people so much… i thought the general idea of a handful of rich people starting their own colony in a remote area, where they developed a fake accent and retarded mind control methods, interesting… with the Village i think the previews got everyone all worked up in a frenzy, they were obsessed over the things in the woods…
and again… ignored the movie, waiting for the twist… i think a lot of people were a lot more mad that it was so simple and the monsters werent real, then they were that it turned out they were livign in present day
i’m not even suggesting the movie is without its serious flaws, i just seriously disagree with the characterization of it as a ‘trainwreck’, and yes, i put part of the blame on viewers who have conditioned themselves to view his movies a certain way
Posted by Goon on July 21st, 2006Yeah I guess people felt the twist invalidated the entire movie, kind of like Vanilla Sky or something. It was the first Shyamalan movie where the supernatural turned out to be natural.
And yeah there were some things in The Village that were just screaming to be parodied… the retard and the blind girl for example. But there are still some awesome scenes in it. I love how he did the knife stabbing part.
Posted by Sean on July 21st, 2006“I love how he did the knife stabbing part.”
The best stabbing scene ever was in “House of a 1000 Corspes”, bar none!
Posted by Bassmasta-Baychuk on July 21st, 2006I will agree that the man has talent but his ego is jynormous. He needs to start leaving it at the door otherwise, he’s only going to hurt himself (and some of the damage has already started). I’m not a huge fan of his to begin with and all of the “controversy” around his newest offering, along with the bad reviews have left a sower taste in my mouth. As far as I’m concerned, his next film should be bloody brilliant or he’s lost me for good. I don’t care how talented he is.
I’m sure there are hundreds of up and commers who are just as talented, if not more, than he is – WITHOUT the ego. I could care less if this was his last film. He’s totally lost me.
Posted by themarina on July 21st, 2006Shyamalan creates films that are easy to hate. Cynics should stay the hell away from his movies. His movies take a little but of effort. You have to be okay with suspending reality for an hour and half to enjoy his movies. It seems to me that the people who are able to accomplish this, find his movies tremendously charming, fun, and emotionally deep.
I will admit that I was tremendously dissapointed in Lady in the Water. You had Giamatti’s brilliant acting (and wonderful character) thrown off by the completely unconvincing acting from 1-dimensional characters. The lack of depth from the rest of the actors was pretty astounding. It’s tough to blame them, though. Shyamalan’s character in the film was just as bad.
My opinion is that he probably did let his ego get the best of him in Lady in the Water and step in front of the camera a bit too much. Since he is obviously not a gifted actor, he should stick to directing, where I think he has more talent than most of his contempories.
Posted by Egotist Mike on July 22nd, 2006Take note, Kevin Smith. (lol)
Posted by Bassmasta-Baychuk on July 22nd, 2006Genius. My favourite living director.
Sorry for not elaborating, but I’ve spent WAY too much time (you have no idea!) defending the guy the last 10 days… *Sigh*
Genius.
Posted by Henrik on July 22nd, 2006Blast! I will say for the record, that I don’t like 6th sense at all.
Posted by Henrik on July 22nd, 2006I absolutely LOATHED Sixth Sense, and hated Unbreakable even more (if it was possible)…
Signs was great in my opinion and I thought that my faith in him was finally there (everybody raved about Sixth Sense and I was alot happier with “Stir Of Echoes” that same year)…
I actually enjoyed The Village, although I saw the “twist” coming from 10 miles away…Even that being the case, I enjoyed it…I didn’t see the second twist however about the current day setting (sorry for no spoiler alert)…
Lady In The Water is getting bashed horribly but I’m still curious…We’ll rent it, and that will be about as far as it goes…
Just thought I’d pipe up!
Posted by CrzyDJM on July 24th, 2006Personally I have not enjoyed anything he has done, the sixth sense was OK as popcorn films go, but there’s been much better. I’ve seen people calling him a genius and an auteur and while I respect film is subjective, I do wonder if they have really thought about that. I mean there are lots of things that I like, even love that I can take a step back from and release just because I like them does not mean they are works of genius.
I’m not sure he’s a hack as there’s a loyal mainstream audience for his stuff, but in my opinion his work is no match for the likes of Toshiaki Toyoda, Guillermo del Toro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Darren Aronofsky … in fact it’s not even in the same league. As for comparing him to proven auteurs I find the notion nonsense, when you talk about genius Akira Kurosawa, Jules Dassin, Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah it becomes ridiculous to try and put M. Night Shyamalan in that league.
Still that’s just my personal opinion, if people really enjoy his work and feel he’s gifted in some that’s just a case of personal taste I guess.
Posted by feral cat on July 24th, 2006Leave a Reply