Having delivered another critical failure with After Earth, Anthony Stokes asks whether M. Night Shyamalan is really as bad as people say…
Nobody embodies the phrase “One Hit Wonder” better than M. Night Shyamalan. Initially deemed as “The Next Spielberg”, he has been on a progressively steady slump his entire career, making weaker and weaker films with each passing release, and at this point it’s up in the air which one is the worst. How could somebody who showed such initial promise end up becoming a punchline?
M. Night’s formula is to have a mystery that revolves around a mythology and slowly give out information to the audience before hitting them with the pay off. His direction is very slow and deliberate, with horror sensibilities. His actors are all given thoughtful, pulled-back performances and his pacing is really slow to draw out tension, which is best embodied in The Sixth Sense. He’s been compared to Steven Spielberg, but in this regard Stanley Kubrick is a better comparison.
However, the problem with Shyamalan’s recent films is that they’re dull and nonsensical, with silly payoffs. Stupidity parading as intelligence. The logic is often flawed, although it may initially seem sensible until you say it out loud . His movies feel distant and emotionally hollow and his actors seem stiff and stilted. It’s almost as if every aspect of the movie is designed to not make you care.
Very few of those problems can be attributed to M. Night as a director. The majority of flaws in Shyamalan’s films fall on the scripts. The characters, twists, logic and dialogue all come from the script. I know it’s hard to separate the two when it’s the same guy writing and directing, but hypothetically, if it were two different people performing these tasks, I think that the bulk of the complaints would centre on the screenwriting.
What most people don’t realize is that much of the criticism aimed at the “bad” M. Night movies is the same criticism aimed towards the “good” M. Night movies (that Signs has flawed logic, Unbreakable has a forced twist, and that The Sixth Sense is cold and detached). But the difference with these movies is that he good had scripts to back up his direction, which I still think is better then average. Without good dialogue his actors struggle, and with horrible logic his movies reach a level of unintentional self parody.
I’m not trying to defend any of his movies (except The Happening, which was a satire of his worst movies), but rather I’m just giving credit where credit is due. I imagine M. Night had lots of time to develop The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable and they flourished because of it and were well thought-out. His other projects weren’t afforded this advantage, and they definitely suffered as a result. After Earth was co-written by M. Night from a story by Will Smith and polished by Oscar Winner Mark Boal. This is a step in the right direction, but he would benefit more from getting an inspired script from a good genre writer who has sole writing credit.
M. Night Shyamalan is a decent director who needs to stay away from his keyboard. Hopefully he will find a new lease of life on smaller independent films, or team up with a writer who can reign him in and help him make a good movie.
Anthony Stokes is a blogger and independent filmmaker.
Originally published June 14, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
