Ninja and Pirate

You know what, I’ll be honest. I can’t say that I believe Shyamalan gets 100% of the flak he deserves. I really enjoyed all of his movies up until The Lady in the Water. Even that one wasn’t fully bad- just sort of lackluster. I will defend The Village as a depressing and poignant dissection of mankind’s innate violent nature until my dying breath. That movie is brilliant. And I don’t understand people saying “Oh but the aliens can’t handle water? Then why did they come to a planet that was like 75% water?!” People giving that argument are assuming that water is a universal necessity (even though we know now for a fact that is quite likely). For all we know, the aliens from Signs exist using ammonia the way we use water. For all we know the aliens had never encountered water before their trip to Earth. Not to mention, everyone says every one of his movies has a twist. I disagree. The Sixth Sense had a twist, yes. Arguably, Unbreakable could be argued to have a twist. Twist endings turn the meaning of everything in the movie on it’s head. Bruce Willis being Orson Welles’ sled all along changes the interaction of characters, the storyline- nearly every single aspect of the movie gets turned on its head when that one piece of information is revealed. THAT is a twist. Merril picking up the bat to beat the alien, Bo (my sister’s nicknamesake) leaving water everywhere- that is NOT a twist. That is the unconnected threads of Mel Gibson’s character’s life falling into place. That is the POINT of the movie- that everything has a purpose. Whether or not religion is involved (you recall his character had a faith crisis) everything is connected even if you don’t see it. That’s not a twist, it’s the POINT of the movie. Yes he is not subtle in any definition of the word but I think that in order to communicate to the masses, you need to be incredibly blatant to get the point across.

Don’t get me wrong, though. Shyamalan has really fell down in quality. Excuse me, PLUMMETED. The Happening was just an atrocious mess. And I’m not talking about people complaining about “OMG killer plants lawl”. I’m fine with that. It makes sense to have the villain be not only everywhere, but a constant part of life. The main character feels like his world is turning on him and it literally is. However, the writing and characterization is absurdly terrible. The acting is abysmal as is the directing. The Last Airbender is absolutely beyond explanation. That movie absolutely demolishes everything wonderful about one of the best shows ever to air on television. It’s atrocious and inexcusable. Even the movies he writes, like Devil, have fallen victim to his own ego. I said earlier that subtlety gets thrown out the window to get the point across in his movies, however when subtlety is abandoned just for the sake of simplicity something has gone wrong. The writing is as dry as it is silly. Checking to see if the Devil is around by flipping a piece of toast?! How are we supposed to take that seriously? So I guess what I’m trying to say is I will defend some of his works but as of now the shlock has outweighed the gems of his work.

Also, I will never forgive him for what he did to Avatar. Ever. Honor.