What I liked about early Shyamalan movies was that the characters and the setting were grounded and then the unusual element was introduced on top. It was very relatable watching how ordinary people react to ghosts, or aliens, or this idea that they have some kind of superpower. He was already the "twist" guy to many people but I think that pulled him in the wrong direction. Whenever he gets away from that the movies suffer. With _The Village_ a period piece is already a little tougher to get into. Then the woods monster is already in the premise and the twist is just weird. I think if it had come out in 2016 instead of 2004 the buy-in would have been easier because we'd be thinking of Robert Eggers' _The Witch_. Then came his bad period, but _Split_ fits the good pattern. Dissociative identity disorder is overused by movies, but seeing it through Anya Taylor-Joy's eyes and a complex world it basically works. No surprise that was a better movie. (On that basis I think _The Happening_ should have been better. Unfortunately that marks the start of Shyamalan forgetting how human dialogue is supposed to sound. This ruined _Old_ as well.) I haven't seen _Trap_ yet, because I'm not a horror movie guy so it's at best a "wait 'til streaming". But I do know the twist and my fear is that it's going to undermine the premise rather than elevate it. That plus I'm not sure he's regained his ability to write believable lines yet. But the makings are there to feature reasonable people acting reasonably.
More often than not, he makes moves that try and go beyond their reach. I wish he would go back to his roots and make a sequel to Signs. That's one of a very few movie he's made, that has worldbuilding and atmosphere so heavy that it doesn't break under the stilted dialogue and a weak script.
Hard agree on most things here except “The Happening” I don’t think even Daniel Day Lewis could save that film. I feel like signs works despite its dialog issues because Mel Gibson and Joaquin both play kinda shut in and introverted people so it makes sense that their dialog is a bit stilted at time.
I’d say if you haven’t been liking has latest, this one is unlikely to change much for you. As for Long Legs we did actually watch it! We didn’t get around to filming our review of it, but we had similar opinions to each other, around the 2 1/2 to 3 star range. We try not to let marketing impact our expectations too much, but the initial comparisons to Silence of the Lambs made it hard to not compare their stories, and ultimately we felt although it had some great intense scenes, the character of longlegs didn’t work for us that well. I still enjoyed a bit more than Aiden, but regardless we both agree that atmospherically it was really great, and the cinematography was doing a lot to aid the suspense of the film, just wished the investigative elements felt more in tune with reality, rather than “other” forces in the film. Totally get why some people liked it more though, it just didn’t connect with us as well as we had hoped. Thanks for always keeping up with us! - Antonio
What I liked about early Shyamalan movies was that the characters and the setting were grounded and then the unusual element was introduced on top. It was very relatable watching how ordinary people react to ghosts, or aliens, or this idea that they have some kind of superpower. He was already the "twist" guy to many people but I think that pulled him in the wrong direction.
Whenever he gets away from that the movies suffer. With _The Village_ a period piece is already a little tougher to get into. Then the woods monster is already in the premise and the twist is just weird. I think if it had come out in 2016 instead of 2004 the buy-in would have been easier because we'd be thinking of Robert Eggers' _The Witch_.
Then came his bad period, but _Split_ fits the good pattern. Dissociative identity disorder is overused by movies, but seeing it through Anya Taylor-Joy's eyes and a complex world it basically works. No surprise that was a better movie.
(On that basis I think _The Happening_ should have been better. Unfortunately that marks the start of Shyamalan forgetting how human dialogue is supposed to sound. This ruined _Old_ as well.)
I haven't seen _Trap_ yet, because I'm not a horror movie guy so it's at best a "wait 'til streaming". But I do know the twist and my fear is that it's going to undermine the premise rather than elevate it. That plus I'm not sure he's regained his ability to write believable lines yet. But the makings are there to feature reasonable people acting reasonably.
More often than not, he makes moves that try and go beyond their reach. I wish he would go back to his roots and make a sequel to Signs.
That's one of a very few movie he's made, that has worldbuilding and atmosphere so heavy that it doesn't break under the stilted dialogue and a weak script.
Hard agree on most things here except “The Happening” I don’t think even Daniel Day Lewis could save that film. I feel like signs works despite its dialog issues because Mel Gibson and Joaquin both play kinda shut in and introverted people so it makes sense that their dialog is a bit stilted at time.
Still unsure if I'll be seeing this. Shyamalan hasn't impressed me in a long time.
Did you guys watch Longlegs btw?
I’d say if you haven’t been liking has latest, this one is unlikely to change much for you. As for Long Legs we did actually watch it! We didn’t get around to filming our review of it, but we had similar opinions to each other, around the 2 1/2 to 3 star range. We try not to let marketing impact our expectations too much, but the initial comparisons to Silence of the Lambs made it hard to not compare their stories, and ultimately we felt although it had some great intense scenes, the character of longlegs didn’t work for us that well. I still enjoyed a bit more than Aiden, but regardless we both agree that atmospherically it was really great, and the cinematography was doing a lot to aid the suspense of the film, just wished the investigative elements felt more in tune with reality, rather than “other” forces in the film. Totally get why some people liked it more though, it just didn’t connect with us as well as we had hoped. Thanks for always keeping up with us! - Antonio