Recently, I was on imdb and I stumbled across M. Night Shyamalan's page.

So he has been hired to direct another movie! I don't think he is a bad director overall, I think he knows what he is doing but just writes bad screenplays. All except the sixth sense, which was magnificent.

Anyway! The movie is titled "After Earth" and the plot - "After a crash landing, a father and son explore an alien planet." That doesn't really tell you though so we'll have to wait the 2013 release date.

I don't think it'll be as bad as his others. Especially not as bad as The Last Airbender (IMO the worst movie ever). The reason is that he isn't writing it, which seems to be his biggest problem.

The writer's won an Oscar for Traffic so it should be good.

It also stars Will Smith and Jaden Smith.

Thoughts on M. Night anyone?

I've enjoyed all his films, apart from Lady in the Water...which had things to recommend it but disappeared up his own posterior.

The Village was irritating. 80 minutes of brilliance unhinged by a ridiculous ending, but still a worthy piece of filmmaking.

Unbreakable was excellent.

Signs was good, but had too many plot holes.

I enjoyed the Last Airbender and would watch the sequel.

even the Happening was pretty decent, IMHO.

I thought Unbreakable was his best movie.  He went downhill really fast after that.




Phil

I liked The Village more than most.  Never saw Lady in the Water.  But The Happening was bad enough to make never want to watch another M. Night film.  Mark Wahlberg trying to run away from the wind ranks as one of the most unintentionally hilarious scenes ever put on film.

Scar Tissue
You enjoyed The Last Airbender! Dayum! I think it just came across as forced with really bad story telling. It was based on the cartoon/anime Avatar which is definitely in my top 3 TV shows. This was the worst remake I have ever seen. In fact, most animes adapted to live action movies suck. All of them except the first Death Note movie, which is in Japanese!  

Trust me, if you enjoyed the movie the cartoon will be 10 times better. Also, I liked the ending for the village. It could've been executed better but I still thought it was decent.

Phil
I'm still yet to see unbreakable but I shall watch it sometime!   That graph is damn sleek so thanks for providing that. Hopefully After Earth doesn't go lower than 6%. That'll ruin Will Smith more than that time he chose star in Wild Wild West instead of playing Neo in The Matrix. Tut tut tut Will Smith.

Ryan1
I saw the village years ago so my opinion might not be the same if I watch it now but I enjoyed it. I totally agree with you on The Happening. I could not help but laugh at the stupidity. Every five seconds my voice echoed through the neighbourhood. "WTF! That doesn't make sense!"

But anyway, I did see an awesome trailer for his latest movie, about to be released in cinemas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hksKLHt9Kzg
Embed videos disabled.

I am really hoping that After Earth isn't terrible. M. Night has a lot more potential left in him and I think he should just lose that Twist Ending trademark. Hopefully that will clear up that dreaded writing you read at the start of his films.

"From the mind of M. Night Shyamalan"

I'd never seen or heard of the cartoon, so watched it in perfect isolation. I found it to be one of the better kids films I'd seen in a while.

His problem is that he upset a lot of people with the Village. The ending made the whole film a mockery and it felt like he was taking the piss out of the audience.

Then he compounded the error by openly attacking critics in Lady in the Water...a moment that let them know they'd won.

He's basically got the world against him and ready to pick apart everything he does.

I agree that his desire to create another Sixth Sense ending is harming him. Might be better just concentrating on making a cohesive film.

I also think he suffers from the fact that Sixth Sense was a long labour of love and was rewritten several times till he found the film he wanted to make. Now that he's working to schedule on projects, I don't think they are as well thought through. All of his own stuff is full of absurdities.

Quoted from Ryan1 Mark Wahlberg trying to run away from the wind ranks as one of the most unintentionally hilarious scenes ever put on film.

I think I've seen this quote from you a few times so decided to try and find the scene online...and I couldn't agree more.  People running from the wind?  Is this really how far this guy has fallen?  I haven't seen any of his movies since the abysmal Village and don't have much interest since he's been on a sliding scale.  Sixth Sense - great.  He peaked early.  Unbreakable - good, enjoyable.  Signs - loved it.  Village - that lame-o ending was really the turning point of his career, cause it's been all downhill since.  

Nevertheless, based on what I know he's capable of with his early success, I am somewhat intrigued by this new announcement.  

I think people take The Happening too seriously.

It's true Greg, I have said that before on here.  It's not often a "serious" scene in an otherwise stultifying movie will make me laugh out loud, but that one did.

Quoted from Andrew I think people take The Happening too seriously.

Agreed, starting with M. Night himself.  I wanted to like that movie, and I remember the trailer being very intriguing.  But good God did things go bad in a hurry.

this movie is being filmed in my home town (a suburb of Philadelphia). i work in the casting business and i know quite a bit about the film. unfortunately i can't say much publicly.

unfortunately for me, they arent casting many roles besides the principals (which smith is one). however i think i may know the "big reveal" at the end, depending on how much info is revealed in the trailer. if it ends the way i think it will, you're all going to be super pissed....

and in regards to the happening. that movie sucked ass. i actually auditioned for a role, but didnt get the part. after seeing the film, i was relieved.

Trailer!

Great.  There's even a forced 'Planet of the Apes' twist in the trailer.

I thought M. Shyamalan was going to be a great writer, especially after seeing 'Sixth Sense' and I even thought 'Stuart Little' was great for a kids movie, (he only wrote, not directed that one).  Thought he might be great at jumping genres, but he hasn't even succeeded in the genre that made him famous.

I didn't like 'Unbreakable' pretty much at all, but I still liked it more than 'The Village'.  'Signs', for some reason, I really did like a lot, even with all the glaring plotholes.  (An advanced alien civilization that can travel millions of light years can't figure out how to open a door?  And then, knowing they have a sensitivity to water, land on a friggin' peninsula, on a planet that's seventy-some percent water?)  'Lady in the Water' bored me to tears and I haven't even given 'The Happening' or 'Last Airbender' a chance, as I'll probably ignore this one, too.

I still admire 'The Sixth Sense', though, I'll always give him props for that one.

I think this looks great.

~Zack~

I can't say I'm setting my hopes high for this one.

I have to admit to struggling through the last few M. Shyamalan movies. The Last Airbender was just awful, IMO.

But the difference here is having Will Smith involved . Wild Wild West aside, he rarely jumps into a flawed project but I don't know if his son's involvement had more to do with him taking up the role.

The trailer wasn't bad even though I wasn't keen on those CGI animals. Probably wait for the blu-ray.

Honestly, that trailer and synop bring one question to mind above all others...

Why do you need aliens to make this story work?

An unstoppable alien force crash lands at the same time as the family Smith.
Isn't it enough to have the perilous environment and estranged father and son?
That feels like a John Boorman style man vs. nature/self epic.

Adding a post-it note layer of alien invasion tropes muddies the waters for me.
Anyone else get that vibe?

E.D.

Did MNS ever take those guys up on their offer to send him to film school? lol

Here’s the second trailer…

I still have very serious doubts about the alien subplot.
Estranged father and son crash land and must prevail on a dangerous planet.
OK, lots of drama and conflict already there.

It's the mysterious human hating powerful alien that "tags along".
I guess it got stuck in the same meteor shower or something.
Cuz in today's movies it's not enough to deliver on the promise of your premise.
You must confuse and distract your audience with contrived CG antags.

Meh. My gut says this story doesn't need that angle on top of everything else.
That part feels like a studio note gone awry to me.

E.D.

Looks like it could be decent, more or less. Hopefully better than his most recent films, at least.

I'll admit, I actually still like M. Night Shyamalan... maybe his past films have been horrible, but he made some great early films and I hope he gets out of his slump soon.

The twist will be that the father died in the crash and the kid was using his own knowledge to navigate through Earth!

I sure hope there isn't a fucking twist. That's my biggest worry about this.

Please don't screw this one up, Night...

Umm... what's up with the weird accents? I'd guess it's meant to be British but it sounds so off, I can't say for sure. Either way, it sound really, really awful. That's both actors. It actually took me out of the trailer.

Tell me I'm not the only one hearing this.

In any case, I'm really interested in seeing how this one's received. Shyamalan's had an amazingly bizarre career. It seems like every film he's made has been exponentially worse than the one before it with the last couple reaching near Tommy Wiseau proportions of bad... and yet it all started with The Sixth Sense. Now, they can't even put his name in the trailers. Truly unique in the annals of film history.

This one seems a weird amalgam of elements. I honestly don't know what to make of it at this point. Seriously though. Those accents are absolutely horrid.

Quoted from James McClung This one seems a weird amalgam of elements. I honestly don't know what to make of it at this point. Seriously though. Those accents are absolutely horrid.

I noticed it too. I don't think it's meant to be British, but it's pretty odd. I guess it's because they're 1000 years into the future.

Didn't bother me that much, but it is kinda weird.

Quoted from nawazm11 The twist will be that the father died in the crash and the kid was using his own knowledge to navigate through Earth!

Or they're both dead, and they're doing their father-son bonding In Limbo!

Will Smith bringing in one of his kids is a major turn off for me.  I think it'll be like this for a lot of others.  He's trying to create a dynasty, or something, and no one cares.  I'm already tired of his daughter.


Phil