Are we in a rut, or what??

Rating: Null/10 (5 May 2004)

I was/am a huge fan of The Sixth Sense and have seen it several times with each viewing revealing another nuance of movie-making artistry that makes me want to anticipate the next Shyamalan outing with eagerness.
Not wanting to wait for the release of his follow-on (Unbreakable), I sought out his previous film, "Wide Awake," and was nearly equally as pleased with what was a very touching and enormously likeable film which is highly recommended for his fans, and families looking for a good movie to stimulate thought and conversation. You can see in this earlier work, unaffected by the glare of wunderkind adulation that now accompanies Shyamalan's ouevres, an innocence and attachment to the angst of children that makes us all long for those times in our own jaded lives.
Then came Unbreakable, and I found myself disappointed because many of the same tricks, devices, locations, actors, and derivative audience manipulations were again used that we had seen in his better earlier works. I could see a pattern developing that to me said "move on" before the arthritis of cliche overwhelms you.
Then came "Signs," and I knew the shark was hurdled. I won't belabor the many flaws well documented by others (of which I'm in entire agreement), but a few pointed remarks are in order. I'm one who likes to suspend conventional belief for the sake of entertainment as much as anyone, but I will not become stupid for the experience. This movie has all the same flaws as Unbreakable, but goes one level further (lower?) by asking the audience to accept the crashing stupidity of aliens technologically advanced enough to travel through space, but astoundingly incapable of breaking down flimsy barriers and not smart enough to know that this planet is mostly made up of water which is highly toxic to them. BTW, having a glass of water thrown at you is one obvious thing. But have you ever wandered about at night through tall grass (let alone cornfields while making those ridiculous "signs" now well known by all to be hoaxes) in a misty humid evening. You will be drenched. Aliens will die. And if that fails then hocking a loogie constitutes a pretty close substitute. C'mon, even a heavy handed Mel Gibson can't overcome that nonsense.
So now I've seen seven minutes of "The Village" (with same devices, actors, etc in the mix) and I've already heard some speculating that this is Shyamalan's homage to Little Red Riding Hood which just fits in perfectly with the many cliches he's established heretofore. I really, really hope it's not that obvious and shallow. But I can't quite shake the feeling that we are in a deep, deep rut here.