M. Night Shyamalan Directed Movies Ranked
There are few filmmakers who have hit the heights that screenwriter-director M. Night Shyamalan has reached over the course of his three decades in cinema. His work, from his sophomore feature The Sixth Sense through Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, Split and beyond, has made him one of the most talked about, most critiqued, and most noteworthy filmmakers of his generation.
Shyamalan’s art has amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in box office takings, as well as two BAFTA nominations and two Oscar nominations, and his well-known narrative-warping twists have made for some of the current era’s most rewarding experiences – and some of its most dumbfounding.
Whether you watch a Shyamalan piece for the greatness of his best constructions or the morbidly comedic nature of his worst, you can always guarantee that a Shyamalan movie will aim to be the absolute best that it can be.
In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are pitting all of M. Night Shyamalan’s directorial efforts against one another and judging each in terms of artistic quality, bravery, critical reception and public perception, to judge which are the most unmissable entries into Shyamalan’s filmmaking canon. These are: the M. Night Shyamalan Directed Movies Ranked (from worst to best).
15. The Last Airbender (2010)
M. Night Shyamalan’s career hit rock bottom with The Last Airbender in 2010.
This big budget adaptation of the famous Nickelodeon animated series ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ was awash with mismatched editing, terrible CGI, and a frightening lack of visual and narrative logic. Add to that its insistence upon delivering twenty-plus episodes of backstory in just 2 hours and the result is a film filled with the most awkward and unnatural dialogue exchanges you’re ever likely to see – it seemed Shyamalan and company could think of no better way to introduce characters than for them to simply say their names, histories and motivations in their introductory lines.
Criticised by everyone from fans of the original series to newbies, The Last Airbender also woefully handled the original series’ commitment to representation, the film choosing to cast white actors as heroes (despite the original series’ ethnically diverse cast) and people of colour as the villains.
It truly was a low point for Shyamalan in a period filled with monumental misses.
14. The Happening (2008)
Coming in to The Happening in 2008, fans of M. Night Shyamalan’s career had already had their patience tested a few times, but if ever there was a jumping off point it was here.
Described by movie parody YouTube channel Honest Trailers as “one of 2008’s best comedies”, The Happening was a film that delivered so poorly on its premise as an environmental horror that it is now best remembered for the countless memes it has generated.
Mark Wahlberg – “What? Me? No…” – offers a career low performance, and Zooey Deschanel looks like she doesn’t even know where she is, but neither of them ever had a chance at delivering the most amateur dialogue of Shyamalan’s entire catalogue.
In The Happening, Shyamalan seemed to reach his peak in terms of control, and the result was one that demanded his influence on future projects be better managed. It took 7 years for him to write another original screenplay (The Visit) and even longer for him to somewhat repair his reputation as a director, this failure almost destroying the legacy of this once great filmmaking prodigy.
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13. After Earth (2013)
Adapted from a story written by star Will Smith, After Earth felt very much like a Smith family vanity project wrapped in nonsense, like the very worst of an Existentialism for Beginners course. Smith was even rumoured to have directed some of the movie himself.
As was the case with The Happening, not much actually happens in After Earth, but it doesn’t seem to be without the want of trying.
Jaden Smith (in this film his father’s son, because of course he is), is tasked with crossing unruly planetary territory to save the day. He is faced with a number of tasks to keep him (and us… apparently) interested, but despite his video-game-like level progression through the narrative, the film is nothing short of supremely boring.
British film critic Mark Kermode said of After Earth on his radio show that the major issue of the film was in the story being one of a child with personality and gusto having to undergo a series of events that would make him dull and boring (or, as the movie puts it, composed and capable of doing his job). In insisting upon this concept, the film ensures that we feel every minute of how dull and boring the character relentlessly becomes – the movie itself becoming as relentlessly dull and boring in the process.
After Earth made it four from four in terms of woefully bad releases for Shyamalan, causing the director to revisit his low budget independent horror roots for his next film The Visit in an attempt to recapture what had brought him to the dance in the first place.
