M. Night Shyamalan Ranked

Posted by : Unknown Friday, May 31, 2013

I think we all know who M. Night Shyamalan is, and more importantly, we all know what he does. He has had quite a lengthy career in showbusiness, writing and directing his first movie, Praying with Anger, in 1992. But he didn’t really become a blip on anyone’s radar until 1999, when he made The Sixth Sense. Since then, he has released six more feature films, all of which he wrote and directed. With his eighth feature film, After Earth, being released today, I thought it might be about time to take a trip down memory lane to see the highs and lows of Shamalamadingdong’s career. So...here goes nothing...

7. The Happening

I don’t think I need to tell any of you how bad this movie is. Just...wow. Mother Nature just freaked out and decided to ruin the world? Yea...that’s the twist of a lifetime. What were Marky Mark and Zooey Deschanel thinking when they signed on for this dud?

6. Lady in the Water

Everything about this movie blows. The only really saving grace of this film is that it has Paul Giamatti. You know everything about the movie sucks when not even he can save this movie. The story doesn’t make sense and the “twist” is absolutely retarded. I’m really not sure if you can even call it a twist. Dear god! Someone should have stopped him after this one.

5. The Last Airbender

I don’t even know where to start with this movie. It was just...wow. It took a beautifully elaborate world, that was so elegantly expanded upon...and ruined it. Everything that they tried to do wasn’t even close to what they should have been doing. The plot was horrid, the acting was cringeworthy, and the world building was non-existent.

4. Signs

A lot of people usually tell me that Signs isn’t as bad as I remember. Those people are full of crap. While Signs has a pretty interesting concept, and does a good job of making an “alien movie that isn’t really about aliens,” I think that it fails in one main regard: logic. When Shyamalan does his patented twist at the end, it makes the hours of set-up seem absolutely pointless...because it makes them make no sense. It is the perfect example of a movie that could have been great...if he hadn’t done the twist.

3. The Village

The Village is a film that is very stylistic. It has the feel and look of something Crucible-esque, which I really like. While the plot seems a little forced at times and doesn’t seem to know exactly where it wants to go, I didn’t think it was awful. This was the first movie where it felt like Shyamalan was forcing himself to do a twist, just because it was his thing. Without the twist, I think this could have been a great story about a village that was cut off from the outside world, but he had to muddle it up with his cockamamy twisting.

2. The Sixth Sense

Who can forget this iconic 1999 film? Everyone knows the classic line “I see dead people,” as well as the unforgettable twist at the end of the film. Go back and watch the film and you’ll be like “How did I not figure this out the first time?” because it is all perfectly laid out in front of you. It is a true testament to how an amazing script can drive a film to greatness.

1. Unbreakable

I think the only real debate when it comes to Shyamalan, no one really questions what his best movies are so much as fights over if their favorite is The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable. Both films are great in their own right, but for me, Unbreakable wins out...but not by much. I think Unbreakable edges out The Sixth Sense for one reason: it’s more in my genre of film. I absolutely love both of the main characters, and how they were portrayed by Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. I think that the driving theme in the film is much easier to identify with and be empathetic of. But most of all, I think Shyamalan really found his feet in this film as a director. Some of the scenes are so beautifully filmed that I honestly thought that he had the makings of a phenomenal director. Sadly, it was all downhill from here.

Honorable Mention: Devil

While this movie isn’t exactly an M. Night Shyamalan film (read: failure), I think it deserves a little credit here. Shyamalan wrote the story for this film, but had no other input, which is probably why it wasn’t half bad. The best part about it is that it really feels like a Shyamalan movie, with the same filming style, and the always expected twist. But this was definitely worth it, and Shyamalan at least deserves credit for coming up with the story...right?