M. Knight: You're Screwed, Dude!



"The Last Airbender"

M. Knight used to do some great character studies of real internal battles with external battles like "Unbreakable" and "Signs," and then something happened. I'm not sure if it's early Alzheimer's or just a really shitty ego trip, but he went on to make clunkers like "The Village" and assaulted our intelligence with "Lady in the Water" and then decided to go "R-rated" which I had such amazing hope for and came up with the limp thriller "The Happening." Now, this newest to come out CGI-shit-fest "The Last Airbender." You know, at this point, all the potential he had, all the intelligence, insight, and depth were washed away in the money machine. I think this is the straw that broke the camel's back and I will never be coerced into paying (even for a rental) for one of his movies again. That said, I'm sure there's some nerds out there who are going to wet themselves over this trailer, but I am not that kind of nerd, so I will simply say ("plwwwwwwwewww"--that's the sound of me giving a raspberry)

Comments

  1. I am SO right there with ya on M. Night!!! How could the same man write & direct a movie like the 6th Sense and then a few years later crap out Lady in the Water and The Happening??? I was never so pissed off at a movie as I was at The Village. I hated every second of that shit-fest and felt violated that they promoted it as a horror flick.

    I just have 2 words for M. Night: SUCK IT!!!

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  2. OK. So I have to defend The Last Airbender, not M. Night, who sucks, but The Last Airbender. It is based on a cartoon series called The Avatar (long before Cameron's Avatar) and the cartoon series was spectacular. It was filled with childish humor and joy in the face of evil and really just had many awesome stories. I was very angry that Night got movie rights because he'll strip it of the humor and the most charming aspects of the series. But I have to have hope. I'm hoping Night won't kill the series, because the series was great.

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  3. Scott;
    Yeah, I don't get it. I know he did Lady in the Water for his kids and I'm guessing his kids are still pulling at his pant legs to do this remake. And, Jessica, yeah I know about the original but why the hell is M. Knight not even doing his own original plot and why a godawful CGI suckfest? I don't get it. Yeah, The Village pissed me off so much. I nearly got up and left the theater when I realized it wasn't horror. It was so good up until that point when he dumped cold water on us. I think his theater seats should come with thumb tacks on the seats and ice water in buckets for us to place our feet in and then we'll be halfway there without seeing the freaking movie.

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  4. That is just soooo, so weird, Sharon. I absolutely triple-√'d that I was embedding this trailer for E. Elias Merhige's white-knuckler, but instead, according to you, Shyamalan's latest video game promotional was posted on that site. tom's Sunken wreck™ has earned its disparaging moniker for certain now. I'm disappointed, and have been, ever since mr. S's The Village. Lady in the Water was good. Signs, though a sci-fi/horror/suspense-thriller, seriously misrepresented the oft times highly complex crop circle phenomenon as something sinister, not the Gaian mind communicating to us, which it is. Funny how things turn out. I have got to find me an executive producer. My films will not disappoint ~ (•8-D

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  5. Bror;
    Please make my movies for me. I know they'd be awesome! I'm hoping to convert my SciFi novel "MetaNet" to screenplay instead. I think it would be much better in that form than a book. I just now have to learn the style for screenplay writing and get about 8 more hours in my day! Damn! It promises to be blockbuster, though. What I loved about Lady in the Water was only the characters. I just wanted to hang out in the apartment building with these people. They were really complex and fun and I found myself wanting to move to Philly, but it just took me off the rails when it started into the whole magical thing. It just didn't suit at all. A fairly tale in the city--I'm just not into that. It's like that episode of "Predator" movies where they brought him into the city--totally ruined it. Some things can't be done in a city setting and fairy tales and alien camo monsters are two of them. Yeah, that trailer thing was crazy, but hey, it gave me something to post about cause I sure as hell didn't hear M. Knight was going to have another directorial herpes outbreak again. I wish they'd send out some Valtrex with the trailer before hand--or just blind us...

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  6. I don't know what is up with him. He started out so promising and then started sliding downhill. I loved The Sixth Sense and Signs but from then on, I barely could stomach his next movies and hated The Happening. Whatever funk he is in, he better get out of it or he won't be bankable anymore.

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  7. I'm with ya, Julie. I think it's some kind of depression or apathy. Either way, he's spending a lot of money cranking out shit when he should just get some therapy and a retreat for inspiration and get back to his roots.

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  8. The joy that M brought me in that one brief moment of "Signs" when Joaquin is watching the "disturbing" video of the alien from the window of the kids' birthday party has allowed me to forgive all the subsequent movie disasters.

    Except "The Happening". That was just all sorts of wrong.

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  9. Pangs;
    Baby-o! You are my hero! Yes! Yes! Yes! (in my best Meg Ryan impression from "When Harry Met Sally") You hit it on the head. That was my favorite scene from any movie -- ever!!! It was so real and like "this is how it would actually go down" I love Joaquin yelling "vamanos!" hee hee Gave me super chills. I still wish we hadn't gotten full-frontal alien at the end, however...I would have liked to have seen that reflected in the dead TV screen instead of seeing it all-on. It totally screwed up what was a completely believable plot with that awful jerky alien.

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  10. The Village wasn't bad, though I had it figured out halfway in. Lady in the Water was craptastic, plus he pulled a Stephen King and wrote himself into the story. The only movie I really liked was Sixth Sense and even that one I had figured out before the end. I have to say... I've never been impressed with him too much at all, and I wouldn't shed a tear if he stopped making films.

    If anything I write is ever made into a film, I'm going to talk Scott over at Anythinghorror.com into being co-producer just to make sure it comes out as good as it can be.

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  11. Candace;
    I'm with you. I love M. Knight for bringing a kind of old-fashioned spooky atmospheric thing back to life but mostly for his characters. He has nicely flawed folks and anti-heroes. I agree about Scott at AnythingHorror. I personally would like to have him help me turn my SciFi horror into a screenplay. The guy knows his horror films like nobody's business.

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  12. I'm approaching it from the opposite perspective.

    I love Avatar: The Last Airbender and I was so upset when I heard M. Night was doing it and even more upset when I heard what he was doing with it. It's going to horrible at best and borderline racist at worst.

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  13. Waeben;
    Yeah, I will readily admit that I am going to avoid "Avatar" for the rest of my life. I know it's enormously popular, but I have absolutely no interest, but I totally get that there is a huge population that absolutely loved it. The Last Airbender was a well loved storyline and I can't imagine that M. Knight could possibly do it just for the folks who liked it. I suppose he's finally run out of his own original ideas. I don't think it's going to bode well to lovers of that story or to lovers of M. Knight's work.

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  14. I've made similar observations about his movies. The Sixth Sense was awesome, Signs was good...and that's about it. The Happening wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good either. I didn't even have a desire to see Lady in the Water or The Village. He seemed to start out good then just kind of go downhill.

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  15. Jeff;
    I get the distinct feeling he was a fledgling with all these years of builtup visions in his head and was true to what compelled him, character studies... but then he let outside influences bombard him and now he just seems like an adolescence going through the pimply stage. Maybe he'll mature, but he could have ruined his reputation by then.

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  16. Candace & AutumnForest--

    You're both too kind!!! I appreciate the kind words. I'd be honored to work with both of you on projects. Since I've started my site it has become my Frankenstein's Monster & has sucked up all my time. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE running anythinghorror.com. But I think if I were to start working with someone on a side project I'd be more motivated to get back to my own writings!!

    I've got a lot of horror to share!! LOL

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  17. Well, Scott, the writer's critique group is just sitting there waiting for you to submit anything you come up with. Hey, I have a short story contest on my blog right now. I just posted it on Sunday. You might consider it. It's a zombie one. 1000 or less words, premise is what if a zombie's soul haunts him, and it's due by midnight EST on July 3rd. Sent to my email.

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  18. I totally agree. He had so much promise after Sixth Sense and Signs. Don't know what happened. Maybe he's like a child star. Got big all at once and buckled under the pressure. I don't know.

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  19. Andrea;
    That's as good an explanation as I've heard. You think he'll end up in one of those desperate celebrity shows eventually???

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  20. I LOVED "The Sixth Sense" and I've watched "Signs" so many times I can almost quote it word for word (but partly because I have this decor/design disorder where I'm obsessed with home interiors).
    I love to pop a movie in while I clean house or work on my art but when I rented "The Happening", I actually had to get up, stop the DVD and put something else in. It's stupidity was hurting my head.

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