M. Night Shyamalan: over-rated or not?
 

yes. purely my personal opinion.

the sixth sense wowed me. although with some suspicions, i did not see the ending coming.

signs bored me. although there is some clever idea and a clear message, the movie was neither exciting nor suspenseful, only dragging on and on.

the village i thought was simply stupid. the story, the idea, the execution, one word: blah.

and his gimmick with the sci-fi channel trying to promote himself is purely disgusting.

i hope his next project, if there is one, would have something new, instead of recycling himself over and over again.

I wouldn't say he's overrated because practically everyone agrees the The Village blows fat monkey chunks.

I think M. Night Shyamalan is a one trick pony. He can only to super-natural thrillers. And because he only does it, he slowly making bad movies as he goes on. On the M. Night Shyamalan topic, My favorite movie from him was SS and unbreakable.

errr, is \"blowing fat monkey chunks\" a good thing? if so, practically everyone agrees? i didn\'t think so.

yeah i agree with you itachi. it gets old pretty quick.

Yeah. Watched The Sixth Sense: very creepy, twist got me, most enjoyable horror movie I've ever seen (which isn't saying much, but still). Watched Signs: not really creepy, heartwrenching goodness (which is what I liked about it), twist didn't get me quite so much.

Have not watched Unbreakable or The Village, which I heard is a crapfest and I already know the twist anyways.

He seems to be maturing in reverse :p His best work was his first, the second "Unbreakable" was good but it seemed to be lacking something - it felt as if you got only half a story when the movie ended. "Signs" was atrocious - come on, aliens who are defeated by water? That comes from the very bad B movie category :p So, yeah, I can't speak for everybody but I'm with you in saying that people should drastically alter their expectation about M. Night Shyamalan - they just shouldn't expect another "Sixth Sense" from him :-)

i really liked The Sixth Sense, but loved Unbreakable and liked Signs... The Village was OK, i guess, but i was a little disappointed in it. so i guess i'd say that overall i dig his stuff, but he may be a tad overrated.

I like all his work, including The Village, Unbreakable was my favorite though. I think the majority of people don't like him because of his early success and popularity.

Shamalamadingdong is completely overrated. He has yet to put out one interesting movie, mostly because the "twists" he seems to rely on to make his flicks worth remaining conscious through aren't all that hard to figure out. It seems to me the only talent he has is for making sleep aids. They should be sold right next to the "Soothing Sounds of the Sea" tapes.

the cinematography in signs as well as unbreakable was really good and interesting. i also thought signs was hilarious, intentionally so at that. so many funny, quirky scenes in that one. the story and "twist" were kind of irrelevant for me. didn't see the village. and as someone else pointed out, i didn't believe that shamalyan was overrated because his weaknesses are apparent to anyone. i still like looking at his movies.

He wrote Stuart Little.
That's the only reason I like him.

He was interesting at first because Sixth Sense was such an interesting movie.

When you see the same thing over and over and over again, it does get a tad predictable.

Sixth Sense was good, Unbreakable was bad, Signs was slightly entertaining, but ultimately turned to crap and The Village was....well, amazingly craptastic.

I completely agree that the Sci-Fi thing was just cheap.....crap. I just can't find the word to convey such disgust.

his films are shit and zzzzzzz
:)

Why do so many people like the Sixth Sense so much? Honestly I thought it was his worst film (well, okay maybe the Village takes that honor, but I did like the Village better than most).

Here's my feelings on him. He's a B movie filmmaker. An exceptional one at that. However, since there aren't B movies anymore you either make A movies or don't make movies (I'm leaving indies out of this discussion since he's never really made an indie). And since his movies make bank and he's got Miramax and Disney swinging from his sack, he makes A movies. The problem with this is that he now feels he's special and fills his movies with such annoying pretensions because of these superior feelings. So his movies aren't as enjoyable as they could be.

If this were an earlier era when there was still such a thing as a B movie. He would be making lowly B pictures that were just plain highly entertaining, because he wouldn't have the social currency around hollywood making him feel self-important and he wouldn't have enough actual currency to make self important movies.

Hope that made sense. I'm very tired.

You're telling me that a 14 hour show dedicated to seeing M/N/S going out and eating Philly Cheesesteaks doesn't scream ratings?
Wait, it was only 3 hours? Sure felt a lot longer to watch.

Yes, most of his movies are good, but he just have the nice long track record of other directors (years and years of movies) give it some time and we'll see how good he'll truly shine.

not
the only bad thing about signs was mel gibson and you can't blame a bad actor of course !!! oh wait and maybe those green things (don't show us please)
love the rest of his movies though

I loved Unbreakable, but I think you have to love comics to really enjoy it. Signs was okay if you didn't think about it. I enjoyed The Sixth Sense. I have not seen The Village.

So, I'd say he's not overrated. Course, I don't hear many people saying Night is some great director and screenwriter.

sixth sense, too hyped. ending execution was excellent however.
signs, good movie. fun, nothing too special
unbreakable, very good. once again, ending execution was excellent
village, havent seen it yet. the ending however was ruined for me. the ending is the reason why everyone hated that movie (at least thats what i hear from everyone who saw it), however the same ending is what, in my opinion, would make the movie so good.

if you want to go see a conventional movie with little twists and no surprises, then dont see a shamylan movie. simple as that.

imo his style is now remarkably overrated.

i get the feeling that Stephen Hawking would appreciate this mans filmography...
he started out with one big bang... but after that the univserse has been speeding away from itself at such a rapid rate that each subsequent hit has been a fainter murmur of the last.

i though that the Sixth Sense was a great film... but each film afterwards has gotten worse and worse. Unbreakable was ok, but its twist was terrible, as was that bore Bruce Willis (unlike his Sixth Sense work). Signs was just a farce and so on.
he needs to change his bag and move away from the twists and suspense that he relies so heavily upon, since the audience now expects them. it may come to a point where we, the audience, reject him and his efforts for treating us with such contempt.

maybe he should try a simple character development piece with a talented ensemble cast that doesn't try to put the audience into a bored trance of expectation. he has the name to pull together the resources.

SD, he wrote the screenplay, not Stuart Little.
big difference since the book Stuart Little is a childrens classic and the film is not.

Seeing how his only good movie was Sixth Sense, and perhaps Signs, he's clearly over-hyped.

i think that\'s what the problem is. we go see his movies expecting lots of twists and surprises but are increasingly left feeling cheated and disappointed in the end when there is none whatever. his movies are nothing without his so-called twists and surprising endings, yet they feel more and more like a condescending insult to the audience\\\'s intelligence.

maybe your last sentence should be modified like this:

if you do not want to go see a movie with little twists and no surprises, then don\\\'t see a shyamalan movie. simple as that.

That's true, half the fun of watching his movies are trying to figure out where the swerve is coming.

If you dont like the Shyamaman, go read a book. Movie's ain't for you.

I liked Signs. That's it.

This might seem lame, but I've never watched any of them because none of them seemed even the least bit interesting.

And in response to GraveTaker's post, I read tons of books. So I guess movies ain't for me. :hmm:

I watched the Sixth sense, and am very gullible and dumb, so I really loved it.

I watched Unbreakable, was enthralled throughout because it was such a dark hero flick, then disliked the ending, cause I figgered it out.

I loved signs, till about halfway through, when they showed us the aliens, and that they are fizzled by water... There's a lot of water vapor in the atmosphere...

Decided to not see the Village, because I was certain that I would feel as if I'd thrown ten dollars into the garbage. Twenty five if I took my wife, as she likes "pre-flick-food"

It was worth it for SS and UnB though.

Sixth Sense: 2 thumbs up
Signs - fucking awful, just got done watching it.
The Village - shitty movie as well.

He focuses too much of the movies on the "twist."

well if you go into a movie expecing certain twists and dead ends and 180s, then wouldnt the lack of them in itself BE that twist?

i dont know about you, but if you expect a twist then doesnt that take away from the whole "twisting" aspect?

not necessarily. it\'s like reading agatha christie\'s novels. you knew in the end there\'s a twist coming as to whosdunit, yet you could still be pleasantly amazed to find out the answer. true, having certain expectation surely raises the bar, yet, a true classic piece never fails to beat that expectation. a lot of people go see \"the unusual suspects\" and \"the crying game\" knowing there are twists coming, but the endings still blow their mind away. now that is a good twist.

i like his work, but they are long and drawn out. Signs was okay but i was pissed i had to wait for the last 10min to actually have some kind of action to take place or to even get a good glimpse of the aliens.

His next film shouldn't be about the supernatural...but if it is i hope it is not a eye-closer like The Village

In a word yes.

Lets be honest... american movies in the last 20 years have been on a steep downhill slope... i think he's worse than over-rated.

The general public loves him, but he's really nothing special.

I hate how people refer to his movies as having "twist endings".

I didn't like the Sixth Sense because it was obvious what was going on, I thought.

I liked Unbreakable, so I'll give him that.

Signs sucked and had no twist ending..

The Village .. I haven't seen, but I know the ending, and it's not really that great.

I really don't know why people go apeshit over his movies. They really aren't that good. I don't even write movies and I could come up with these "awesome" twist endings.

Thank you ... maybe now E.B. White can stop spinning in his grave ...

Overrated? Compared to most of the shite out there, not at all. Compared to the greats? Sure, but who isnt?

His next trick should be to make a movie without a twist ending, that would surprise everyone...

I think he's got excellent stories, art direction, and film choice for an overall unique 'feel' in his movies, however I think his angle selection and scene cuts are absolutely horrid to the point that I don't enjoy his movies because of it.

I only liked Unbreakable, even so, it wasn't that good of a movie.

i've yet to see the village, but his first 3 movies i liked. at the very least, his stuff is different than the usual hollywood recipe movie