George Lucas and M. Night Shyamalan are both filmmakers who know a thing or two about the rollercoaster that is public opinion of your work.
Both have lounged on the apex of the Hollywood pyramid, lauded from all sides for their magnificent works of astounding imagination and invention. Lucas was the King of Movies for two decades due to his original Star Wars trilogy, and Shyamalan created the most celebrated twist ending in recent memory with The Sixth Sense, a twist often emulated but whose impact has never been duplicated.
But then something happened to both of them. A few missteps, a few calculated moves gone awry — okay, maybe more than a few — and now both directors have found themselves on the receiving end of a slew of venomous critiques.
For Lucas, it was, of course, his second wave of Star Wars films that famously alienated a great deal of his fanbase. Gone were the charmingly clunky set pieces, the vehicles that looked perpeturally on the brink of breaking down, the wildly diverse puppets … all of them replaced by a slick, sleek CGI that rendered the entire Star Wars universe oddly flat and soulless.
The first set of films felt physical and real, like they occupied actual space. The new trilogy looked like a very expensive videogame, with about the same quality of acting. Even normally reliable actors like Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor felt stiff and uncomfortable in their roles.
And we haven’t even gotten to the screenplays yet.
In Shyamalan’s case, the nails on his coffin were, well … every movie except The Sixth Sense. It’s actually rather astounding that he’s been given so many chances to prove he’s more than a one-trick pony, and yet releases flop after flop.
Obviously this is a matter of opinion, but I believe Shyamalan is a phenomenal talent, but as a director, not a writer. For this article, I rewatched two of his relatively poorly-received films — Signs and The Village — as well as his sophomore effort, Unbreakable.
Shyamalan has a fantastic eye - his use of color, particularly the way he subtly juxtaposes bright colors in one scene with a drab, washed-out pallette in the next — is superb. Every frame looks teriffic, with even the most minute detail perfectly placed. He’s the kind of director who can create a sense of dread in a scene as innocuous as a family eating breakfast, not by using creepy music (a mediocre director’s go-to trick) but simply by the way he composes the shots.
But once again, it comes down to the screenplays: it’s the actual story where his movies fall flat. Shyamalan is an unapologetic fan of genre films, and I admire him for that. I respect his mission statement to take B-movie plots and craft them into A-movie cinematic journeys.
But the problem with B-movies is that their plots are often too simple to work as anything more, and that’s usually where Shayamalan stumbles.
And let’s not even talk about Lady in the Water.
So who’s earned more vitriol in their time?
Even though Shyamalan is currently getting dragged through the mud thanks to his latest film The Last Airbender, my vote would be Lucas, for the sheer reason his star burned brighter and longer than Shyamalan’s. Shyamalan’s been a household name for roughly a decade, but the first Star Wars film came out in 1977. Because Lucas was so beloved for so long, it stands to reason that the flip side of all that adulation — a turn to the dark side, if you will — would be a greater burden to bear.
But that’s what I think. What about you? Vote in our poll and add your comments below.
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I think Lucas is just a sad sad greedy fat old man. He saw what he had when he kept the merchandising on the original Star Wars… and EVERY film since he’s been involved with has been merch’d to perverted levels.. including including characters made JUST for toystore shelves (Ewoks? GEEZ)
What makes it worse.. is that it ABSOLUTELY affects his storytelling. His greed ruined the last indianna jones film.. I have heard horror stories about it from people who were ON SET and in meeting.
I agree with this. Merchandizing killed Star Wars.
I don’t hate George Lucas per se, but I do hate what he did to the Star Wars franchise. And not just making the prequels. I can avoid watching them. But for what he did to the originals in revising them & trying to make it impossible to get good copies of the originals. He took the idea of a Director’s Cut to a whole new & perverse level.
What’s interesting is, upon watching JEDI just last week, the “revisiting” CGI already looks really dated and bad.
Shhhh!! Quiet! Do you want Lucas to hear & go back & do even more stuff to the films? :)
I agree with you completely about the CGI bits in the original trilogy. They pain me each and every time I see them, particularly the scene in Jabba’s palace. I understand Lucas may have wanted to try out the sparkly new technology on his older works, but it just makes for an awkward viewing experience.
About the only revision I liked in JEDI was in the ending scene cutting out a lot of the Ewoks & changing the musical score.
But let’s not even talk about switching Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen at the end. I close my eyes whenever I see that scene & imagine the original.
An impossible choice.
Ah well, seems I’ll be forever one of the few who adores “Lady in the Water”, simply because while the story is straight-forward, it really feels like a fairy-tale as it is supposed to be, with very likeable, odd and amusing characters. Could watch this anytime.
With “The Village” it is much the same, I love the atmosphere and the characters, it doesn’t need an elaborated, complicated story, because in my opinion it works just fine with relying on those two things, plus again a straight-forward story. And well, maybe it helped that I didn’t expect a plot-twist in Lady in the Water or actually loved the fact that in “The Village” the twist concerning the creatures in the woods was something so extremely simple.
And here I thought I was alone with that opinion. :) Thank you.
There is no option to hate them both equally!
No, you MUST choose, like Sophie’s Choice.
This made me laugh. Thanks, Brent.
I agree with Tim: as bad as M. Night is, Lucas had farther to fall. (The difference is, I think Lucas really was once a genius, but I think Shyamalan was just lucky.)