I've almost lost my faith in M. Night!! Spoiler

Rating: Null/10 (17 October 2004)

Alright, not everything in this movie is terrible. The haunting score is great. The beautiful cinematography is phenomenal. The acting is pretty good. Really, the only thing that lacks is the story. And that should have been the MAIN THING TO PERFECT!!
I went into the theater really excited. I've enjoyed pretty much all of M. Night's Films (I haven't seen "Wide Awake" but I even liked "Unbreakable," which had an unfortunate backlash!) I can honestly say though, that if this movie had been done by anyone else other than M. Night Shyamalan, it never would have progressed past pre-production. What the script lacked was something that he put so much emphasis on in his earlier films. He likes to steer you in one direction then pull a quick one over you and present something that is completely plausible but at the same time apparent. He had all the ingredients to make an amazing thriller. I was with him until the scene in the woods when Bryce Howard is chased by the creature who turns out to be Adrien Brody. If he had only turned it around and actually made the creatures real he could of scared the s**t out of everyone in the audience. BUT NO!!!! He has to tell us halfway through the film the most obvious twist anyone could think of and then try and trick you by having a crappy voice-over come in "But the things-we-do- not-speak-of are based on an old myth" and then squash it again with "Yep, nothing has changed. The creatures aren't real."
After that the suspense is gone. You really are not afraid iff she makes it out of the woods alive. YEAH, WHY WOULD THEY EVER SEND A BLIND GIRL INTO THE WOODS ALONE. That's right, so his plot can work!!! And if they care so much about the children why not just bring medicine in and save them. Ohh that''s right...because then M. Night wouldn't have a film AND HIS PLOT WOULDN'T WORK! He was so focused on creating this "twist" he forgot to create a propelling story past the second act!!! M. Night copped out of making a real film and just decided to give us a twist. Please leave the twists next time to the alcohol you obviously sloshed yourself in when you were writing this script!! Like I said, I'm a huge fan of his earlier work and I haven't lost COMPLETE faith in him. His next film just has to be more than a twist because if he doesn't reinvent himself he'll fall into a cliché, AND HE HAS WAY TOO MUCH TALENT FOR THAT!