The Sad Descent of M. Night Shyamalan

Formerly promising director M. Night Shyamalan's newest feature film, AFTER EARTH, opens in theaters nationwide on May 31st.  When his mega-hit thriller THE SIXTH SENSE was released in 1999, his became a household name, this on only his second feature, following his little-seen debut family comedy, WIDE AWAKE.  THE SIXTH SENSE was the second highest-grossing film of 1999, next only to box office juggernaut STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, grossing a massive $672.8 million worldwide to become the #1 thriller of all time, at the time, and also garnered six nominations (do you think they planned that?) at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Haley Joel Osment), Best Supporting Actress (Toni Colette), as well as Best Director and Best Original Screenplay nominations for Shyamalan specifically.  With subsequent films like UNBREAKABLE and SIGNS, Shyamalan's name became synonymous with the thriller genre; now it's basically synonymous with 'suck'.  Where trailers and posters used to proudly declare, "An M. Night Shyamalan Picture," or "From director M. Night Shyamalan," such bragging rights are not to be found on advertisements for AFTER EARTH.  Instead, one must read through the credits at the bottom of a theatrical poster or those that flash in the final seconds of a preview to see an ordinary, union-mandated, "Directed By M. Night Shyamalan".  To see what happened, one only needs to examine the RottenTomatoes.com "Tomatometers" (what percentage of critics reviewed the film positively) of his films from THE SIXTH SENSE since, or even, if read informatively, the box office grosses.

THE SIXTH SENSE
Year: 1999 / Rating: PG-13 / Budget: $40 million / Domestic Gross: $293.5 million / Worldwide Gross: $672.8 million
Tomatometer: 85%
Granted, it gets a little bit schlocky in spots, but it makes up for it by being way damn creepy, emotionally intense, and, in the end, emotionally satisfying.  Maybe it's because I first saw it on television, with some deleted and alternate scene cut back in, but I prefer that cut, especially the last shot of Dr. Malcolm (Bruce Willis) in the wedding video.  Ah, but I know for many that would have been too sentimental.

UNBREAKABLE
Year: 2000 / Rating: PG-13 / Budget: $75 million / Domestic Gross: $95 million / Worldwide Gross: $248.1 million
Tomatometer: 68%
Most people seem to forget about this one; an original real-world twist on superheroes, about a year and a half before the sub-genre boomed with SPIDER-MAN (2002), which starred Bruce Willis as a only moderately super-powered man, all but indestructible, who is pressured into taking on the mantle of a crime-fighting vigilante by comics art salesman (Samuel L. Jackson) with abnormally brittle bones.  There is a twist ending, but it's of a very different sort than Shyamalan's other films.  It's a solid, and very interesting movie with strong cult likability.

"More powerful than all the other passengers in a speeding locomotive..."  I guess you kind of have to have seen the movie.

SIGNS
Year: 2002 / Rating: PG-13 / Budget: $72 million / Domestic Gross: $227.9 million / Worldwide Gross: $408 million
Tomatometer: 74%
Shyamalan's writing starts to get real shaky with this movie, although he still nails atmospheric intensity and nails most of the visuals.  By the time you realize though, that this supposedly advanced race of extra-terrestrials, for whom water is like acid, are invading a planet with over two-thirds of its surface covered in the stuff, plus all that moisture hanging around in the air, it really falls apart.  Nor does it help to have those annoyingly contrived moments with Abigail Breslin pointing at stuff and being weird while Rory Culkin spouts conspiracy theories.  Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix, a couple of the oddest ducks in the business, have strong chemistry playing a pair of brothers, though.

THE VILLAGE
Year: 2004 / Rating: PG-13 / Budget: $60 million / Domestic Gross: $114 million / Worldwide Gross: $256.6 million
Tomatometer: 43%
The Shyamalan formula crumbles with his fifth film (his fourth thriller), yet another supernatural thriller about facing fears and such, with a twist ending, only this time, the twist felt a lot more like a cop-out.  The film was structurally sloppy, overly grim and unpleasant, although it really did have a very good visual aesthetic.  It was less expensive than his films since THE SIXTH SENSE and very successful, but it broke the illusion that Shyamalan's previous work had unsteadily held upright.


LADY IN THE WATER
Year: 2006 / Rating: PG-13 / Budget: $70 million / Domestic Gross: $42.2 million / Worldwide Gross: $72.7 million
Tomatometer: 24%
Right, well this is where things had clearly gone very wrong.  Everything about this movie was just so very wrong.  Reportedly, Shyamalan took the story from a bedtime story that he had made up for his kids, and honestly, that's not surprising in the least.  It's about an apartment complex's handyman who rescues a "Narf" named Story from a vicious "Scrunt" (basically a wolf made of grass).  She's magical or something and now the handyman has to help Story get back to her home in "The Blue World".  Who in the hell greenlit this for production?!  And for $70 million?!  To prove how great he is, Shyamalan plays a supporting role as a noble writer who writes a book that will change the world, while he has another character in the mix who's a snotty film critic who gets eaten by a Scrunt, just in case you weren't clear as to how Shyamalan feels about those who criticize his work.  That kind of spitefulness is can rarely be mistaken for honest talent.  Financially, the relatively-moderately budgeted (for a summer film) fantasy was a big disappointment, barely making back the production costs, to say nothing of the marketing and distribution.

THE HAPPENING
Year: 2008 / Rating: R / Budget: $48 million / Domestic Gross: $64.5 million / Worldwide Gross: $164.3 million
Tomatometer: 17%

That's a guy... getting his arms bitten off... by a lioness.

I have not seen this movie, although reading this really makes me want to: http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/awfully-good-50.  Otherwise, Shyamalan clearly took a drop in budget after the disappointing intake on LADY IN THE WATER, but this film was also much more successful financially, even with the steep drop in both audience and critic approval.  It's main advertising point was that it was the first R-rated movie from the director of THE SIXTH SENSE; not exactly a promising point to base your marketing on.

THE LAST AIRBENDER
Year: 2010 / Rating: PG / Budget: $150 million / Domestic Gross: $131.7 million / Worldwide Gross: $319.7 million
Tomatomer: 6%
Previously titled AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER, but changed to avoid confusion with James Cameron's recent mega-hit, AVATAR, this action/fantasy film, based on a popular Nickelodeon anime cartoon, was the one that put the nail in the coffin which Shyamalan had been laying in since LADY IN THE WATER.  To take on his first adaptation, Paramount gave Shyamalan a summer blockbuster's budget of $150 million, but it could only manage $131.7 million in the United States.  Unfortunately, yet again, the international market sacrificed quality in exchange for a 3D gimmick (thanks a lot!), so the film was ultimately a moderate financial success.  On the other hand, it's become a punchline for bad movies, and is widely considered one of the most disappointing movies in recent years, proving that Shyamalan wasn't only washed up in the field of thrillers.

After driving his reputation into the ground, Shyamalan has taken on someone else's story for the first time, and is sharing screenwriting credit with Gary Whitta, a writer for video games.  The story is Will Smith's, the gimmick is that Will Smith is starring with his real-life son, Jaden, and their characters are named Cypher Raige and Kitai Raige, respectively.  Basically, it's about Jaden Smith trying to look cool and fighting CGI monsters, not unlike real life.

You know that really annoying stage that male child actors go through, where they don't want to be cute anymore, so they aim for "badass" but miss completely and wind up in "kinda douche-y" territory?  Yeah, that's kind of where Jaden Smith is at right now.