M. Night Shyamalan Sets His Next Two Movies at Universal for Release in 2021, 2023
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Just saw this. Excellent news.
As a big M. Night fan, I always look forward to whatever he comes up with and am glad that his career has recovered.
Hopefully one day we'll see him put out some films that are on the same level as his first four.
Excellent news indeed. In my book his true filmography thus far consists of
The Sixth Sense
Signs
Unbreakable
Split
Glass
and I'm confident these next 2 efforts will be on the same level (and Wide Awake and The Visit while not at the same level are still very decent side efforts).
The Village, while not a complete explosion of sewage matter did begin to lay the groundwork of his nosedive into excrement territory. The romance angle between Ivy and Lucius was great, particularly the scene on the porch; beautiful film making. The twist on the other hand came across as dried up and like he was scrambling to meet fan expectations.
and Lady in The Water was basically a result of his ability totally having gone to his head and him striking back at critics whom he believed had done him wrong. If you've seen Mel Gibson's portrayal in the South Park episode The Passion of The Jew, that's essentially what Lady in The Water is.
And his next 3 after that …………………...ughhhhhhhhhhhhh I think I've lost faith in humanity.
Glad to hear from another M. Night fan.
I actually think The Village is a great film. I love it and have seen it multiple times, and I think that it's not only well-made technically (such as the excellent cinematography) but it's also very interesting thematically. I think it's better than The Sixth Sense and on par with Signs and Unbreakable.
I enjoyed Split well enough, and thought Glass was pretty good, but I don't think those films are on the level of what I call The Big 4. I was, however, very happy to see their financial success.
I actually don't think there's ever been even one M. Night film that I've seen that I didn't get at least a little enjoyment from. While The Happening is hilariously bad in certain ways, I can still draw some entertainment value from it. The Last Airbender felt amateurish in certain ways, but there are things I like about that film as well. And while After Earth got a lot of shit from people, I didn't think it was bad so much as I just felt it was mediocre.
Lady in the Water deserves a special mention because it was ALMOST a good movie. I actually find the premise very interesting and imaginative, and I like the first 2/3 of the movie, but it loses its way as it moves into the third act as if Night didn't know where to go with the story. It's a hard movie to judge because it's a good movie for quite a while . . . and then it's just not anymore.
Personally, I think that Shyamalan does his best work when he tells stories that are aimed at family audiences. Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs and The Village were all very adult works in a lot of ways, but they also appealed to younger viewers as well. It was around this time that he was hailed by Newsweek as "The Next Spielberg" and I do think that his early works have a Spielberg-esque quality to them. He is less interesting to me as a filmmaker when he tries to go the edgy R-rated route.
You have some good points. I'm happy to see people so dedicated to their opinions (even though I might not always necessarily agree with them) and strong enough not to let the general consensus bring them down. Everyone has the inherent inalienable right to like what they like, but I know first hand how hard it can be to steer away from peer pressure of general consensus. Good luck and all the best.
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