M. Night Shyamalan: Not a Review

And now, an article from guest Blogger and Dream Seeker character The Apologist:

Shyamalan movies demand that you surrender to his way of telling stories.
If you're up for that, you should go.

-- Chris Hewitt, St. Paul Pioneer Press

Here we go again.

In my opinion, people who have not enjoyed Unbreakable, The Village, or Lady in the Water should not bother reviewing any of his future movies. He could do a Harry Potter movie or another hot franchise and it wouldn't matter -- these CRITICS don't like his style.

His style is not "twist endings," as USA Today labeled him with this week. His style, in M. Night's own words, is to take the first act of a story and expand it to three parts. He slows a story down and focuses in on details. It reminds me of Alan Moore's Watchman, where every panel has meaning both obvious and hidden.

I love it. He's a director that respects an audience looking to think and soak in the details. He's, dare I say it, different.

I love this guy's movies. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that The Happening makes money, but going up against the new Hulk movie (which appeals to fans of the TV show, as well as the comic and cartoons, better than the previous movie) is pretty much a box office death wish. You have to wonder if the distributor, Fox, is part of a conspiracy against M. Night.

Of course, there's no such thing as conspiracies, right? I'm sure LME or Tashman-style politics don't enter into the decision-making on when a movie is released. I'm sure the stuff you see on Entourage, like Vince getting booted off the Aquaman sequel because he wanted to do a Columbian drug lord movie, doesn't happen in real life. I'm sure personal feelings don't color financial decisions.

Eat the sarcasm and weep.

At any rate, I'm saddened that this may be his last movie with a decent budget that he wrote and directed. I think it's a shame that the public can't get into his style.

As for M. Night himself -- I have no idea if he is a healthy individual or not. For all I know, he's an unhealthy idealist unwilling to compromise for the sake of getting key points across to the audience. He may be unwilling to sacrifice his control for the sake of surviving in the industry, or pleasing his Sixth Sense audience.

I'll leave the personality type diagnosis to Dr. Hoffman. Personally, I have to somewhat echo Amarillo da Vaca's take on things and say that I care about his work -- the movies he produces -- and can ignore the person, if necessary. I'm a fan of his work -- I don't know him, and I'm not sure I want to know him. I just hope he is successful with The Happening, and is able to continue producing original, thought-provoking movies.

I wish him well, and I hope he is a healthy individual. I hope he's not Sinestro, if you catch my drift.