The Happening~M. Night Shyamalan

"Stir of Echoes", that movie was good. Also thought that "The Others" was good too. Didn't really like "The Sixth Sense", mostly because I didn't like the actor, the kid. It was also a bit slow, but oh well.

I think you have to give this guy credit, I really really like his films...every single one of them.

I admit some are bad but...You have to give him credit for coming up with original stories.

I could never come up with even a simple story. And his stories are always unique...never typical plot lines.

Double post sorry





[edit on 6-6-2008 by Perfectenemy05]

I liked M. Night, up untill The Village. The Village was horrible, and The Lady in the Water seemed like he was trying too hard. So in my eyes this is M. Nights last shot to redeem himself. I think Mark Wahlberg is a good actor, and you can already tell that there is going to be a twist ending, so I am looking forward to seeing how it will play out. I have high hopes for this one, so he better not let me down again.

I'm thinking it's an alien takeover but instead of the aliens doing the killing, they put some kind of spell on the people, so the people kill themselves, thereby doing the aliens' dirty work. It isn't done all at once though, so that's why it appears that people are running from "it."

I have high hopes also ... cannot wait!

Heard tell it's something even more sinister than aliens .... oooooooh

[edit on 8-6-2008 by ImJaded]

Originally posted by ImJaded
Heard tell it's something even more sinister than aliens .... oooooooh

Yes, that makes sense, since he's already done the alien thing. It has to be something totally unexpected, like...ummm...hmmm...

for those who didn't get Lady in the Water.

The guy was making the whole thing up. it was his imagination. Night makes great movies, but they only work if you're smart.

reply to post by jedimiller


No, I totally understood it, it just felt like he was trying too hard. Lady and the Water imao was not very good. Many horror fans would agree, but if your not a huge horror fan or your lame, I guess you could be fooled into liking that sort of thing.

Horror film? lol. man it was a fantasy film. nothing horrific about it. watch the making of.

reply to post by jedimiller


I just always kind of saw him as a horror director. Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village ect. I can agree it was more of a fantasy movie than anything, with elements of horror. I just said as an avid horror fan, it did not sit well with me. I didn't hate it. It was much better than the village, but all in all I expect more from him. Just one mans opinion.

Originally posted by jedimiller
for those who didn't get Lady in the Water.

The guy was making the whole thing up. it was his imagination. Night makes great movies, but they only work if you're smart.

Do you mean the main Character (Paul Giamatti) was just imagining a story, rather than a strange story becoming real?

Yeah I picked up on that, I still didn't like it though.

I just saw The Happening.

Personally, i loved it but a lot of people when they find out the big scary threat will be highly disappointed.

I'd accidentally run into a major plot spoiler on the net days ago so I had no false preconceptions that could lead to disappointment.

Unlike all of his other movies, this one has been left open for a sequel.

I happen to like M. Night Shyamalan's style. It's unique, and creates its own mythos. Now granted, some of his movies have been a steaming crapfest, like Lady in the Water and The Village, but I was rather taken with Signs and Unbreakable was interesting. Sixth Sense was great.

Thing is, you have to remember that this guy doesn't do the standard blockbuster formula, he's a niche innovator, returning to a time where "Tease the Shark" really meant something.

Think about it. Nowadays, most big-budget films, there's no shark, even in the previews. In the 30-second trailer, they show you the good guy, the bad guy, the monster, the twist, and the ending. It's almost pointless to see the Movie. The Incredible Hulk? Please. I can already tell you exactly how it goes just from the commercials. Hulk beats up army guy, who gets injected with the stuff to make him a hulk. He becomes a stronger hulk and goes on a rampage, and Real Hulk must give up his chances to become a normal person again in order to fight him, and in the process, his one chance at becoming normal again is either lost, or realized that he must stay The Hulk to protect the world from bad guys. Maybe joining SHIELD along with Iron Man in the process or something. That sound about right? I haven't seen the movie yet, and I already know the whole damn movie.

But with a Shyamalan film, you never really know what you're going to get. All through Signs, I wondered if I'd ever actually get to see an alien or not. The first time they showed just the tiny silohuette of it standing on the barn-roof in the "there's a monster outside my window" scene, it freaked me out far more than anything I saw in Aliens. When the newsreel showed the footage of it walking past the birthday party, everyone in the theater had some four-letter words to say in surprise. Now granted, the end was forgetable, but I could never have been able to appreciate those sorts of moments in, say, Independence Day, or Alien vs. Predator.

I guess that's the thing... Shyamalan has a way of creating a great "moment" in a film, and then surrounds it with a story to support and make that moment plausible, while trying never to fully reveal the source of that moment. Sometimes it works, like Sixth Sense... sometimes it doesn't, like The Village... sometime's it's a completely lame waste of time that makes me wonder why I wasted two hours of my life, like Lady in the Water. And sometimes, it's just a few extremely memorable scenes sewn together in an otherwise unimpressive movie, like Signs.

I like Shyamalan, and I'm glad there's still the occasional innovator like him, willing to risk it all to bring us a new, or at least newly twisted concept. If it weren't for people like him, the film industry would never evolve.



[edit on 6/13/2008 by thelibra]

First, let me say that I liked some of M. Night's movies...The Happening SUCKED! Do not waste your money on this movie!

Only the most rabid of environmentalists will even remotely like this movie.

Again, do not waste your money. Maybe Hulk will be better...verry disappointed in this movie. :bnghd:

reply to post by Spencer Tracy


Damn. And I was going to see it tommorow. Maybe I'll see the Strangers instead. :bnghd:

reply to post by schism85



Yes, by all means see Strangers.

I have always liked M. Night S.s movies also; but this one was an abomination.

absolutely no character development.
Miss Cast
Weak Story/plot
Stupid dialog
way to many lame moments

and I don't like movies that try and tug at your heart strings and make you care about the characters by having a kid as a central character.

Don't even rent the DVD!

$13.00 and 2 hrs. wasted.

It's sometimes fun imagining other director's takes on popular movies.

M. Night does The Incredible Hulk

We learn that the Banner becomes the Hulk in order to (mostly) help mankind against various threats.

The story proceeds as per the comics' legend, but we slowly learn of mysterious mass deaths around the world in a parallel story.

Then it slowly becomes apparent that on the exact opposite side of the world from where Banner is transforming, approximately 50,000 people perish every time he becomes the Hulk.

The rest of the story goes on about how he tries to manage his changing and how he goes around the world to try to understand what's happening.

It turns out that since the energy of his transformation can't come from nothing he's actually drawing on the life force of that mass of people who must perish so that the Hulk can live.

The dilemma is heightened by a new threat and if the risk of transformation is worth the benefit.

In the latest ATS-Mix Show (Title: "Stewart Swerdlow...") SkepticOverlord says that the director must have lifted the plot for the movie from a certain ATS-Thread. Anybody know which thread that might be?

reply to post by Skyfloating


The director as in M. Night Shamalanathon ? I did'nt hear that. Unbelieveable! I wonder what thread it was??



[edit on 14-6-2008 by schism85]