Well, folks, this weekend sees the release of M. Night Shyamalan’s newest film SPLIT, which I’m very excited to see, so I thought it’d be a good time to revisit some of the films where he got started as a filmmaker and then see how his career progressed along the lines. Instead of arranging his films by year I figured I’d do something a little different and just rank all of his directed films. The only films I didn’t include are DEVIL seeing as he produced and his directorial debut Praying With Anger since I had no access to it and I know there was a version of the film up on YouTube, but the quality was so lousy that I just didn’t feel the need to watch it that way. Without further ado here’s EVERY M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN FILM RANKED!
PART 1
(#10 - 6)
10. THE LAST AIRBENDER -
There have been a lot of horrible things said about this movie and after seeing it I can finally jump on that bandwagon. Not only is this film awful in every sense of the word because of how it’s adapted from the original show, but in general, it’s a really horrible film. First off, the performances in this film are truly atrocious. There is not one actor that looks as though they’re trying and instead deliver such wooden and dull performances. Secondly, while the dialogue is poorly written and isn’t delivered properly by the actors, I feel that every other line that’s spoken in this film is just lengthy exposition that isn’t the least bit interesting.
The story just isn’t constructed in a way to make you feel invested in the overall conflict. There is never an instant where I truly felt the danger and emotion surrounding such pivotal events that happened in the entirety of this film. Also, the characters that I adored in the show were very uninteresting. I didn’t care about a single character and not even characters like Appa, the flying bison, and Momo, the flying lemur, could save this movie. This was such a shameless attempt at retelling a story from such a phenomenal show in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Go ahead and just watch all 3 seasons of that show instead of this movie. I believe it’s still available on Amazon Prime if you have an account. No, Amazon did not pay me to say that, but hey I’m doing you a favor.
9. AFTER EARTH -
Well after Airbender, it gets better right? Well, it’s better, but that doesn’t defeat the purpose that it's still a garbage film. Now I know Shyamalan is capable of accomplishing great talent behind the camera, so it just hurts me to see this terrible film because here it doesn’t even seem like he or anyone else was trying. The screenplay was just plain awful with how certain events played out and the forced dialogue that felt unnatural. Will Smith who I think is a fine actor felt like he didn’t even want to be there and his son Jaden Smith makes Hayden Christensen seem like an Award winning actor. I’m serious! His line delivery seems like he can’t even speak freakin’ English and add any emotion to his performance. Going off of adding emotion to performances, did all the actors watch films like The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones to have an idea about how characters should speak?
The line delivery is so dull and no personality is given to any characters, especially our main leads, to have these characters come off as interesting or even likable on screen. When Jaden Smith’s character is put in danger, I didn't even care! When Will Smith’s character is near death, I didn't care! As much as I hate this film and the way it was done, part of me does feel bad for Shyamalan for the fact that there was production trouble with this film. I don’t know all the specifics, but am aware that issues happened on set, which caused Will Smith to direct while Shyamalan was off to the sidelines. It makes me feel awful because whatever troubles they were having behind the scenes, it does show in the end result since nothing in this film is the least bit impressive. All that said, there were some visual effects shots on Earth and in space that are kind of well done, but in the end, there wasn’t a whole lot to make this film an experience to remember. Horrific screenplay, lousy performances, and incredibly depressing direction. It really bums me out to see this film crash.
8. THE HAPPENING -
Oh boy. I know The Last Airbender and After Earth were disasters, but man what happened here, Shyamalan? I know people thought Lady in the Water was the film where he lost his mojo, but honestly, I think this film was where things were starting to fall apart for this director. I mean this film is the definition of silly with a concept that is so absurd that I truly will not understand if there are people out there who took it seriously. Because of such a goofy concept, the way certain events are handled in this film is so dumb that at the same time there was a lack of effort involved. With a concept this dumb you can’t help but laugh at how crazy and over the top this film gets. Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel as the lead characters don’t even act like they’re trying and completely mail it in with their performances.
Also, the pacing of this film is so terrible that even with the stupid events in place, the film didn’t take the time to have us get a grasp of these characters as the film continues to build to such horrible events that happen in the film. The film needed to take its time to have us feel out the characters and have solid build up to these events. That all being said without the concept in mind there are a few scenes where I see the potential of how Shyamalan could’ve taken certain moments and incorporated them into a story that made more sense. Like the opening scene, in my opinion, was well done and even the climax with Wahlberg and Deschanel meeting outdoors. These scenes where it actually seemed like Shyamalan was trying gave me the impression that if these scenes were placed in a better film they would’ve had more meaning. I wish this film wasn’t such a missed opportunity for Shyamalan because of the potential I saw, but with an incredibly dumb concept and laughably bad performances, this film wasn’t much of a saving grace.
7. LADY IN THE WATER -
This film was honestly a big surprise for me mainly due to its word of mouth. It currently holds a consensus of 25% on Rotten Tomatoes and the general responses I’ve heard have been either negative or just "meh." I was genuinely shocked how invested I was in this story and how Shyamalan told said story and didn’t tell it in a very conventional fashion. I appreciated that he tried to do something new with telling this story by incorporating an ensemble of characters. Paul Giamatti, in my opinion, is one of the best actors working today and does a truly great job in the role of Cleveland as does Bryce Dallas Howard as the Lady in the Water creature herself, Story. All and all I really dug the story of this film and the fantasy lore that was used in order to tell said story. I get that maybe there was maybe a little too much exposition to tell the story and maybe the film would succeed more in showing than telling like in the opening scene, but I found the lore to be the most fascinating aspect of this movie.
I guess my issues lie in the film’s screenplay because even though the characters are portrayed very well by all the actors, the characters do come off as being underdeveloped except for Cleveland. I just think without the interesting fantasy lore the characters wouldn’t have had the same impact with their involvement in the story. For example, there would be nothing to a character like Story if we didn’t learn about her background and the story behind her species and homeworld. Even though it can be a bit exposition heavy with underdeveloped characters I did still find a great deal of investment in the story and to go along with it, Shyamalan makes a great looking film. I get that it might not work for everyone because the way in which the story is told is different from his other films and most films I’ve seen in general, but it definitely was a film I could appreciate and be invested in.
6. WIDE AWAKE -
Now, this is a film that’s more obscure on Shyamalan’s filmography and isn’t really brought up in the conversation when discussing his films. Again, this was another film that shocked me because of the negative consensus it received from critics. As of right now, it has a Rotten Tomatoes consensus of 39%, which maybe I do kinda understand. In the end, I really liked this movie and thought it was a really good coming of age story about a boy named Josh trying to find the purpose of life and if there’s more to it spiritually. I like that the film doesn’t force that aspect upon you too much and beat you over the head with that sort of message. I’m even a Christ follower and can agree that a majority of Christian films have trouble accomplishing that. The film does a great job of showing how real the struggle is to find a belief in something and that there are events that may happen around you big or small that make you question,”Why is there so much bad happening in this world? Is there more to it than that?” I think it’s to say maybe there’s a purpose behind events out there if things turn out good or bad.
The film’s intention might not want you to believe things a certain way, but maybe to perhaps think about it or just enjoy how those themes worked out in the film itself. That’s probably where critics didn’t appreciate it for forcing upon this message. It can get a little heavy-handed at times, but personally, I felt this film did a better job at executing that aspect of the story than other religious based films. Aside from the story, the performances, for the most part, were pretty good. Sometimes, I felt the child acting was a little off and on when it came to some of the line delivery, but overall still really solid. It’s also a pretty well made film in terms of filming and editing, but with Shyamalan at that point in his life you know to expect quality filmmaking. Overall, I felt the emotion hit, it was an endearing family film, the story was exceptional and that as a coming of age story it was different in its own right.
And that's Part 1 of my ranked list for Shyamalan look out Part 2, My Top 5 Shyamalan Films, out tomorrow. Trust me, that this list will have much better films than this last one. Be on the lookout for that and be sure to check out maybe the last couple films on this list or 3 if you just want a laugh. Thanks for reading, see some movies and all that good stuff!
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