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Lady in the WaterFollow

#1 Aug 07 2010 at 9:05 PM Rating: Good
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Old movie, but I wanted to take it up since M. Night has been bashed a lot for his latest works.

I just saw Lady in the Water by "accident". I've seen a lot of his movies and I really enjoy them, because usually he's got a great cast, great music and a story that leaves you staring at the credits like you just got hit by something hard. Having heard a lot of negative reviews over this movie, I surfed the channels and finally came across it a couple of hours ago. Since then I've come to two conclusions:

1. Movie critics are just people with opinions.
2. Lady in the Water isn't a bad movie.

Really, it's got it all. Maybe one might eye M. Night's own role as somewhat corny, considering he plays the writer who supposedly releases a piece of literature that causes the world of take a change for the better. Apparently, every critic out there (save a few) couldn't get past this. They spend most of their reviews bashing M. Night for playing that role, calling the movie arrogant and holier-than-thou. I can't help but wonder how they would have reacted if someone else had played that character.

I think I know why M. Night himself played the role, though. Not because he's arrogant, but because he identifies himself with that person. The person who is willing to sacrifice everything to make the world better through his work. If you notice a trend in M. Night's movies, it's usually about purpose in life, how to make the world a better place and good versus evil. As for acting, he did a very good job, so I don't know what the hell those critics have been smoking. I'm assuming they just got pissed because the movie critic character is killed off in the movie and then they never got over it.

The movie enthralled me. It starts out as a modern almost-thriller, but ends up becoming a fairytale in modern time. The acting is first class, Giamatti being excellent like always and Bryce being just smoking hot with her red hair and silky skin, but also very innocent in our world. The only thing that might seem a little fake is how easily all the various characters accept the entire story about Bryce being a water nymph and all, but according to the story, they're all drawn there unknowingly, so perhaps that instinct made them able to accept it much faster than a "normal" person.

I really can't put a finger on anything directly bad about this movie, so it's got to be the most underrated M. Night movie I've ever seen (haven't seen The Village yet). There's not a lot of gore (if any at all) as the only death happens off-screen. There's no nudity, except for Bryce being naked in the shower, though nothing is shown and it's all within the story, so it's not like he slapped a lot of blood and sex in there like 90% of all other directors.

If anyone else has seen the movie and would like to comment on it or anything I've said, feel free. I'd like to hear if I'm just crazy, or if he's not as bad a director as the US movie critics would like us to believe.

And seriously, that soundtrack, especially the end scene... coupled with the overall very climactic and bittersweet ending, it was really emotional. Loved it.

Edited, Aug 8th 2010 5:15am by Mazra
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#2 Aug 07 2010 at 10:17 PM Rating: Good
I didn't mind Lady in the Water, Signs, or The Village (except I guessed the twist pretty early on). I can't forgive him for The Happening, though. It may have been the worst movie I've ever seen.
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#3 Aug 08 2010 at 1:03 AM Rating: Good
I loved Lady in the Water. I even thought The Happening didn't suck. I haven't seen The Last Airbender.

Edited, Aug 8th 2010 2:04am by Belkira
#4 Aug 08 2010 at 8:48 AM Rating: Good
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Belkira the Tulip wrote:
I loved Lady in the Water. I even thought The Happening didn't suck. I haven't seen The Last Airbender.

Edited, Aug 8th 2010 2:04am by Belkira


You didn't think watching Mark Wahlberg run from an invisible ripple moving through the grass sucked?
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#5 Aug 08 2010 at 9:06 AM Rating: Decent
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I think I know why M. Night himself played the role, though. Not because he's arrogant, but because he identifies himself with that person. The person who is willing to sacrifice everything to make the world better through his work.


Yes, well done, you've identified the problem.
#6 Aug 08 2010 at 11:38 AM Rating: Good
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Haven't caught that one yet, though I'm sure I will. Haven't seen The Last Airbender or The Happening, either. I felt like The Village was okay...some parts were genuinely creepy, though the twist was a little hard to swallow. The Sixth Sense was decent.

I absolutely LOVED Unbreakable, though. A superhero movie with tremendous subtlety, and a convincing villain who's as sympathetic as he is horrifying. Great movie, IMO.
#7 Aug 08 2010 at 11:58 AM Rating: Good
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Heads up, he's producing another movie called "Devil". It's about 5 people trapped in an elevator and they keep getting attacked by something. The obvious twist: one of them is a hitman and was hired to take out another person that is in the elevator.

Edited, Aug 8th 2010 1:59pm by Shaowstrike
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#8 Aug 08 2010 at 1:53 PM Rating: Good
Shaowstrike wrote:
Heads up, he's producing another movie called "Devil". It's about 5 people trapped in an elevator and they keep getting attacked by something. The obvious twist: one of them is a hitman and was hired to take out another person that is in the elevator.

Edited, Aug 8th 2010 1:59pm by Shaowstrike


I saw a preview for that and people in the theater were groaning. But I'd watch it. It looked interesting.
#9 Aug 08 2010 at 7:30 PM Rating: Excellent
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I'd watch that.

Ray's totally into M. Night's movies. We have every single one of them on DVD. Signs is my favorite movie by him. I hated The Village and The Happening would have been better if Mark Wahlberg pulled his pants down at some point.
#10 Aug 09 2010 at 5:56 AM Rating: Good
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Shaowstrike wrote:
Belkira the Tulip wrote:
I loved Lady in the Water. I even thought The Happening didn't suck. I haven't seen The Last Airbender.

Edited, Aug 8th 2010 2:04am by Belkira


You didn't think watching Mark Wahlberg run from an invisible ripple moving through the grass sucked?


The "invisible ripple" he's running from is called "the wind". It's a natural phenomenon occurring "outside". The reason he's running from it is because this "wind" (or moving air) is carrying the toxins that kill people.

Really, I don't get why The Happening was ridiculed for the plot. If anything, ridicule the acting, but the plot? Why, because the enemy isn't a ghost or some kind of monster? Because there's no plot twist where Mark Wahlberg turns out to be dead all along?

Kavekk the Ludicrous wrote:
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I think I know why M. Night himself played the role, though. Not because he's arrogant, but because he identifies himself with that person. The person who is willing to sacrifice everything to make the world better through his work.


Yes, well done, you've identified the problem.


The problem being what? That M. Night dared cast himself as the visionary martyr, or that Jante's Law is persistent as hell around the world? Really, this movie scored 13% on Rotten Tomatoes under "top critics". Which means 87% of the so-called professional movie critics thought it was worse than Rush Hour 3.

Are you telling me all these professional movie critics found M. Night's casting of himself so bad that it ruined the entire movie? Did they get so butthurt over the movie critic character that they decided to make up stupid excuses to give this movie a bad review? I mean, one of the critics called it "juvenile". It's a ******* bedtime story! Another complains that it doesn't have enough scares in it. It's not a horror movie, it's a ******* fantasy movie!

I mean, seriously, where the hell do they pick up these professional morons?
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#11 Aug 09 2010 at 6:17 AM Rating: Good
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Mazra wrote:
Shaowstrike wrote:
Belkira the Tulip wrote:
I loved Lady in the Water. I even thought The Happening didn't suck. I haven't seen The Last Airbender.

Edited, Aug 8th 2010 2:04am by Belkira


You didn't think watching Mark Wahlberg run from an invisible ripple moving through the grass sucked?


The "invisible ripple" he's running from is called "the wind". It's a natural phenomenon occurring "outside". The reason he's running from it is because this "wind" (or moving air) is carrying the toxins that kill people.

Really, I don't get why The Happening was ridiculed for the plot. If anything, ridicule the acting, but the plot? Why, because the enemy isn't a ghost or some kind of monster? Because there's no plot twist where Mark Wahlberg turns out to be dead all along?


No, people ridiculed the film for the section in bold. It's THE WIND, you couldn't outrun it if you were the fastest non-super powered man on Earth. They should have been infected as soon as the first ripple appeared on the grass. It was just as dumb as the kids running from the evil cold wave in "The Day After Tomorrow".
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#12 Aug 09 2010 at 6:36 AM Rating: Good
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I really like The Village a lot. There's so much throughout the entire movie that I like soaking up, and real world movements like the Amish and Sacred Brethren make this plausible.

I didn't mind the plot idea of The Happening at all. I just thought that it completely lacked any climax. Thus by the end of the movie I was disappointed in it. I presume the climax was supposed to be a tense build up to the point where the heroes accept their inevitable doom, and walk outdoors to meet each other and die together , but it just fell flat. Visually, tension-wise, just flat. Otherwise, I usually quite like Night's quiet, understated style of story-telling as an elegant change from usual Hollywood thrillers. A varied diet is good.

I like everything else of his I've seen, with Sixth Sense a particular favourite, next: Signs, and lastly Unbreakable after The Village. Haven't seen Lady in The Water, I think I'll get ahold of that now.

Night seems to have a real talent in all the films I've seen for choosing/directing child actors. They have all been outstanding, and totally without any seeming sense of the camera that many Hollywood child actors betray. I haven't seen Airbender yet, so I'll see if that trend continued.
#13 Aug 09 2010 at 10:21 AM Rating: Good
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Shaowstrike wrote:
No, people ridiculed the film for the section in bold. It's THE WIND, you couldn't outrun it if you were the fastest non-super powered man on Earth. They should have been infected as soon as the first ripple appeared on the grass. It was just as dumb as the kids running from the evil cold wave in "The Day After Tomorrow".


You can outrun the wind. It's not like all winds move at hurricane speeds. Slow winds can move at around 3 knots (3.5 mph or 5.5 km/h). If you're telling me the fastest human in the world can't outrun something moving at 3.5 mph then I need to sign up for the Olympics. 3.5 mph is walking speed.

The movie explained that the vegetation only released the toxins when a large group of humans approached, which is why they could travel relatively safe in small groups and away from vegetation. They see the ripple in the grass and know that the wind is moving towards them from the trees, so they run away from the trees with the wind to their backs. Sounds reasonable.
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#14 Aug 09 2010 at 10:25 AM Rating: Decent
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The problem is, real wind doesn't tend to always move in a plainly visible front that you're conveniently not already inside of. If they could see the toxins it'd be a lot better, but probably would've messed up some other aspects of the movie. Besides which, one strong gust and your running days are over.
#15 Aug 09 2010 at 11:55 AM Rating: Excellent
Majivo wrote:
The problem is, real wind doesn't tend to always move in a plainly visible front that you're conveniently not already inside of. If they could see the toxins it'd be a lot better, but probably would've messed up some other aspects of the movie. Besides which, one strong gust and your running days are over.


Yeah, that's true. I mean, in real life, when the plants emit toxins to kill everyone, obviously no one escapes. It was really stupid of M. Night to take liberties with how the wind worked.
#16 Aug 09 2010 at 12:27 PM Rating: Default
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In real life, not only does wind not form blatantly obvious fronts, but all choices aren't between completely binary polar opposites. M. Night would've had a chance to rewrite things in a less incredibly stupid way! Amazing!
#17 Aug 09 2010 at 12:39 PM Rating: Good
Majivo wrote:
In real life, not only does wind not form blatantly obvious fronts, but all choices aren't between completely binary polar opposites. M. Night would've had a chance to rewrite things in a less incredibly stupid way! Amazing!


Smiley: facepalm
#18 Aug 09 2010 at 6:54 PM Rating: Good
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Majivo wrote:
The problem is, real wind doesn't tend to always move in a plainly visible front that you're conveniently not already inside of. If they could see the toxins it'd be a lot better, but probably would've messed up some other aspects of the movie. Besides which, one strong gust and your running days are over.


So, if you're on the run from a deadly toxin that causes you to lose all sense of self-preservation, enabling, or even compelling, you to kill all around you, and yourself, and you see a gust of wind that you're sure is carrying the toxin in it move towards you, you'd do what...?

Forget that you want to return to your family, or want to keep your family safe? Crack open a cold one for a last sip? Light a cigarette and take a deep breath? Make a bonfire and sing kumbaya before apathetically stabbing the guy next to you through the throat with a still burning stick from the fire?

Or would you run? Kinda like those people in Independence Day who run from the explosion, or the ones running from the tsunami in The Day After Tomorrow (I saw someone bash it earlier, so we might as well bring it in now). It's so unrealistic, oh my god. They're running from a 300 feet wave of water moving at the speed of sound. Why even bother, it's totally not realistic. And running away from a poisonous wind? Oh my god, lame, everyone knows that they wouldn't bother.

Edit: What I'm saying is that I'd completely understand you if this was a documentary about how to avoid gas clouds, or even if someone in the movie said "to stay alive we can just outrun the wind", but from what I remember, that's not what's going on. The running part is purely instinct. You run away from danger you cannot face. They see danger approaching, they run away from it. I believe someone, at some point, mentions staying ahead of the wind, which is sort of borderline, but given their situations, a certain amount of stress might be expected. People don't think straight when under a lot of stress.

It's not a thriller in the sense that we all sit on the edge of our chairs and wait for the next boogeyman to come into frame. It's more down to earth and the fear lies more in the fact that they're facing an invisible and unnoticeable enemy, capable of killing anyone at any time if they're not careful. That's why it got to me, because invisible enemies in movies scare the sh*t out of me.

Edited, Aug 10th 2010 4:38am by Mazra
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#19 Aug 09 2010 at 7:41 PM Rating: Decent
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I'm not saying they shouldn't have run. You can guarantee that I'd be running in that situation. But when the wind caught up with me, which it would be almost guaranteed to do, I wouldn't be surprised at all. The characters' actions make perfect sense; it's the fact that they worked which is baffling.
#20 Aug 09 2010 at 7:48 PM Rating: Good
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Mazra wrote:
Really, I don't get why The Happening was ridiculed for the plot.

Because nothing happened in the entire movie; it was ironically named.
#21 Aug 09 2010 at 8:37 PM Rating: Good
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Allegory wrote:
Mazra wrote:
Really, I don't get why The Happening was ridiculed for the plot.

Because nothing happened in the entire movie; it was ironically named.


Did we watch the same movie?

I know you're smarter than to think the title is a reference to the pace of the movie.
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#22 Aug 09 2010 at 9:49 PM Rating: Default
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Mazra wrote:
I know you're smarter than to think the title is a reference to the pace of the movie.

I watched it, nothing happened. They pretty much drive/walk around to a bunch of places through the entire movie. They spent the whole movie running from the wind, which you completely cannot run away from. You discussed it earlier, but even a slow breeze will catch you because you eventually have to stop moving. The best you could hope for is the particles to become so dilute as to be innocuous.
#23 Aug 09 2010 at 10:46 PM Rating: Good
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Allegory wrote:
Mazra wrote:
I know you're smarter than to think the title is a reference to the pace of the movie.

I watched it, nothing happened. They pretty much drive/walk around to a bunch of places through the entire movie.


And the parts where people were going on suicidal killing sprees?

Allegory wrote:
They spent the whole movie running from the wind, which you completely cannot run away from. You discussed it earlier, but even a slow breeze will catch you because you eventually have to stop moving. The best you could hope for is the particles to become so dilute as to be innocuous.


You're assuming the air is in constant motion in a single direction. This is not true for local gusts of win. Like I mentioned earlier, local winds are caused by a change in atmospheric pressure in that area. For instance, air heats up in one place and rises, causing a lower atmospheric pressure compared to the surrounding air. This causes the surrounding air to get sucked towards the center of this low pressure point. If the wind is moving towards you, you're most likely in a low pressure area and the wind will then continue to move towards you until you either hit the center of the area and move away from it, or the pressure equalizes.

The wind is easily manipulated, as seen in tornadoes, so it's not entirely impossible that a gust of wind could die down in a matter of seconds. A sudden break in clouds could heat up the surrounding air, causing the pressure to equalize, removing the motion from the air.

Really, if we're going to pick apart this movie due to scientific incredibility, I could mention a million other movies that are even less credible. That's not why this movie was underrated, though. It's not why Lady in the Water was underrated either. I talked about it in the Airbender thread, using the Wachowski brothers as another example.

Basically he succeeded way too early in his career and the hype that followed killed his other movies. He has to reinvent his style every time he makes a movie, because whenever he does a movie, people will compare it to his previous works and be utterly disappointed because it's not another The Sixth Sense. But even if he gave them that, they'd point at the original and call it lame.

Or they'd go on about nothing happening in it, or how the wind doesn't die down in the real world and sh*t. Just saying. And with Lady in the Water, he probably killed his future movies, because it struck a nerve and gave a lot of movie critics some serious butthurt.

Edited, Aug 10th 2010 6:50am by Mazra
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#24 Aug 10 2010 at 2:50 AM Rating: Decent
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Mazra wrote:
And the parts where people were going on suicidal killing sprees?

Of no importance. Random people dying isn't eventful, and especially when done solely to exploit the audience rather than set an atmosphere.
Mazra wrote:
If the wind is moving towards you, you're most likely in a low pressure area and the wind will then continue to move towards you until you either hit the center of the area and move away from it, or the pressure equalizes.

This is true. Unfortunately these zones can be hundreds of kilometers wide. The air still also diffuses.
Mazra wrote:
Really, if we're going to pick apart this movie due to scientific incredibility

That isn't the fault of this movie. The fault of this movie is that nothing of interest happens. Everything else is gravy.
Mazra wrote:
And with Lady in the Water, he probably killed his future movies, because it struck a nerve and gave a lot of movie critics some serious butthurt.

I seriously doubt his slight jab at critics forever earned him their eternal loathing; I'd suspect many of them took it in good humor. The flaw in Lady in the water is that it had a very interesting setup and then didn't do much with it. The end is largely underwhelming and fairly standard; it was surprising in how unsurprising it was.
Mazra wrote:
Basically he succeeded way too early in his career and the hype that followed killed his other movies. He has to reinvent his style every time he makes a movie, because whenever he does a movie, people will compare it to his previous works and be utterly disappointed because it's not another The Sixth Sense. But even if he gave them that, they'd point at the original and call it lame.

It's not that the other movies (those that I've seen) aren't as good as The Sixth Sense; it's that they aren't good. Part of his problem is that he spends way too much time setting up a climax that usually turns out to be wholly underwhelming.
#25 Aug 10 2010 at 4:23 AM Rating: Good
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Maybe it's a matter of perception then. For me the movie wasn't as much a fantasy movie as it was a drama. The fantasy setting was just to put a known story into a new light, it was the twist, really. You think it's just about inspiring the author to change the world and then get her back to the Blue World, but in the process she also inspires all the other residents to be something more. Giamatti's character saves the nymph throughout the movie, but in the end he thanks her for saving his life.

Chances are, if you found the story uninteresting, you didn't give it enough thought. People expect a quick thrill and are disappointed because it requires some interpretation to get the full effect.

What made the movie excellent was the music, the acting and the camera angles, creating the atmosphere of the movie - and of course the emotional ending. It was like a lighter version of del Toro's El laberinto del fauno, which is another drama set in a (relatively) modern fantasy world.

As for the movie critics having massive sticks up their asses, I stand by my comment. The "top critics" rated Lady in the Water 13% on RottenTomatoes. The movie scored almost 58% on IMDb.com and 54% on RT in the community polls. Almost every negative review includes a comment on how Shyalaman is arrogant for playing an important character himself.

This movie is one of the most underrated movies I've ever seen. I put it off for years because so many reviews claimed it to be the death of Shyalaman's career, but now that I've finally seen it, I hate myself for waiting so long. I accidentally flipped over on the right channel just as I was walking past the TV to go play some computer. I sat down on the floor and just sat there for 110 minutes and well into the credits.

Matter of perception and taste, I suppose.

Edited, Aug 24th 2010 4:04pm by Mazra
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#26 Aug 10 2010 at 8:37 AM Rating: Good
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Mazra wrote:
Matter of perception and taste, I suppose.


It's Al. It's not Japanese. It's pretty much game over.

(Sorry Al, it had to be said :-P)

Honestly, I think I've been biased by the reviews of his movie. I liked The Sixth Sense. I liked the Village (I don't think I saw the ending coming, but then again I was young when I watched it). I thought Unbreakable was strange, but good.

However, I went out of my way to NOT see The Happening, The Last Airbender, and Lady in the Water strictly on the terrible reviews all of them received. I'm wondering now if that was too hasty. I'll have to look up the movies online and see if they're good or not. If nothing else, this topic has at least made me consider taking a second look!
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