An M. Night Shyamalan Retrospective

Rating: 6/10 (22 June 2008)

To start off, i've seen every movie of his in theaters starting with the Sixth Sense. And I liked it. It was suspenseful, it was clever, it was unique. It brought the tough as nails Bruce Willis in a new light and introduced us to Haley Joel Osment, who had a short lived career with A.I., Pay It Forward, and Kingdom Hearts shortly after this film. Plus, to me anyway, the twist was unexpected and made an impact with my developing mind. Unbreakable was the next effort. With Bruce returning and Sam Jackson in the cast, coupled with an intriguing story, it was another hit. I was put off at first and didn't like the style of directing for this movie, but over time it grew on me. Eventually I would grow to appreciate Shyamalan's style no matter what movie it was.
Signs was the first mixed reaction. Though I liked it, it wasn't as enjoyable as the first two efforts. The twist was ridiculous and most of the movie gave me a headache thanks to the unusual camera work. Despite the shortcomings, I enjoyed myself. The Village sunk in a deeper hole. I wasn't impressed with the ending and I felt cheated when the main attraction...well, it just didn't do it for me. The writing and character development was starting to fail, I was tilting my head in confusion.
Then Lady in the Water came in. While it did have its moments, I finally felt cheated. That movie went nowhere, many promising moments were butchered or not realized. I wanted to like it, since it was a Shyamalan movie, but it didn't happen. I ended up making fun of it with my friends, with many of the audience laughing along since they were obviously bored with the film. If Shyamalan was there in the same theater with us, he'd probably hang in head in embarrassment and shame, maybe even tear up. I would've if I was in his position.
Now it's time to talk about the Happening. Like Village and Lady in the Water, it doesn't help revitalize Shyamalan's reputation. The characters, some of the dialogue, the pacing, the main threat, the ending...very poor. The very concept and the trailers promoting the movie made this look like the next big disaster movie, I was expecting it to be filled with some intense gore and strong suspense elements. As you might expect, especially if you read other reviews, it didn't deliver. In fact it probably was damaged by customs, lost in the mail, or "returned to sender".
However, most of the reviews i've read were just that: only negative. If you also noticed I gave this film 6/10 stars. How so, if I think some of the elements I mentioned were so poor? Simply put, Shyamalan still knows how to play with the element of suspense. No other modern director I can think of can make me feel nervous during seemingly normal scenes and jump during others. While I was told the film starts to fail around 30 minutes into it, I found it got better. The main silly plot device was actually starting to scare and startle me. That aspect of his directing is as masterful as ever, he didn't lose that ability at all. The fault has mostly to do with the writing. There are some funny moments and clever bits, but most of the script was pretty awful. Lines like "This is a small town. Nothing bad happens in small towns." really wreck the film. I think it's about time Shyamalan allowed another writer to assist him writing his scripts from now on, if his own ego doesn't get in the way that is. And the people in charge in producing really NEED to act on their role some more. It's proved the talent is still there, but since the Sixth Sense he's been full of himself and started thinking he can handle every movie single handedly. Sadly, this delusion has to diminish.
Some scenes, especially in the beginning, were poorly directed as well. It's possible Mark Wahlberg and John Leguizamo were miscast, with Zooey Daschanel giving a pretty unenthusiastic performance to boot. Not much effort was put into the acting, and I blame the director for that. The actors (and actress) I just named are exceptional in other movies, but they just didn't show it in this movie. While it did get better as the movie went on, I couldn't help but think that more parts could've been added or altered to help make the movie surpass greatness. The gore factor really disappointed me, as it was advertised as the first "R" rated film from the director. I'll go ahead and admit I like Hostel, Saw, and even the knockoff Turistas for what they were. I'm impressed how the gore in the first two movies mentioned raised the bar for horror/suspense films. That said, Happening should've been right up with them. The scenes in question should've been more violent and shocking, in my opinion. I couldn't help but notice how fake and "ho-hum" certain scenes were, the most suspenseful scenes didn't involve gore at all. Maybe that's a good thing for some, but I would've preferred to have seen the horrors taken place among all individuals (men, women, and children alike). The impact would've been great if it did. Maybe i'm just a gore junkie, but I know you'll be disappointed by the scenes i'm talking about unless you're one of the extremely queasy types.
In short, if the film's script and story was severely tweaked some more, the directing (this includes acting) was more refined in certain parts, and the "selling point" was more shocking and frequent, it would've been the best effort by Shyamalan since Unbreakable. Unfortunately, it's nothing more than a half-done outline of a potentially promising film. A promising film we will never get to see.