A much much much easier question would be...What did not went wrong? I can't think of anything.

As for what went wrong...

1. The Village. His name was a draw when that one came out. Seriously, it had good advertising, but no stars. Still, coming off Signs his name was huge once again, just like after The Sixth Sense. He screwed up. Nuff' said.

2. WB - worst studio to market a movie ever.

3. No stars

4. Stupid, stupid, stupid plotline. I still can't figure out what it is about. Is it a fairly tale? Weird horror? Thriller? Fantasy? What. Is. This. Film. And. Why. Shoud. The. Audiences. Care?

5. The Village

6. Shyamalan's huge ego (obviously blown up by those inane articles naming him the next Spielberg) and his narcissism. He seriously thinks of himself as a genius and wants to stick it up to the critics. Well, the critics stuck it up his...

7. Shyamalan should stop giving himself cameos. He can't act. He should also stop writing his screenplays, he seems to have lost that as well. As much as I liked Signs and The Sixth Sense, I honestly hope that his next film bombs even much MUCH worse than this (this will still end up profitable for the studio, I think), so that he'll lose creative control over his films for a while and won't have the studios giving in to his demands for a while. Might make him having a different outlook at things.

8. Bad pre-release-buzz, this is a movie that people actually read reviews for...

9. Did I mention The Village?

The Village, The Village, The Village, The Village...

The Village. I loved it, but most didn't, which had more to do with the marketing than anything else IMO. His retreaded "OMG surprise ending" schtick also didn't help. It fit the movie and helped bring out the themes more.

He needs to try something else. Write something but have someone else direct it. Direct something written by someone else. He has potential on both fronts, but if he stays so closed to the rest of Hollywood, this is the last we'll ever see of him.

Terrible concept for one, I mean the movie looked incredibly lame and weird. People just aren't gonna flock to that the same way as something like Signs or The Village, which were easy stories to market.

Marketing marketing marketing. The WB sucks...

And oh yeah, The Village.

We should market some of these ideas to WB.

The Villiage is what went wrong

The horrible reception to The Village, as well as horrible buzz about the film itself and confusion in the ads as to what the movie was actually about...

i'm sure there are lots of factors but as far as i'm concerned this year, WB can blame themselves and their marketing for not earning more than they could.

As we all say there were lots of factors from ego to marketing. To add to it, this seems like one of the few times the audience would have rather there were some big twist at the end.


Welcome back.

What went wrong:

1. The release date. Open up against 2 other films and who knew Pirates 3rd weekend would still be this big.
2. The marketing. The early teasers were nice. The final trailers blew. Couldn't decide what the film actually was.
3. The Village. If ever a film so underwhelmed viewers it was the village but I think Unbreakable also had that affect but the followup film was of good quality. While I think LITW is of good quality imo I believe that audiences are being confused by Shymalan about what to look for in his films now. Twist or no twist, scary or not scary, spiritual or not spiritual.
4. Shyamalan. While I don't totally agree that he's the main problem I do think that maybe his ego has gotten excessive and has affected his directing. In addition, he needs to stop with creating ever larger roles for himself in his films because it's just not working. A small minor part preferably non-speaking is best for him.
5. The reviews haven't been kind, but I think that has more to do with Village than the overall quality of LITW.

I'll be shocked if this film has even decent WOM. It is every bit as bad as they say it is.

It's another Village all over again... except a smaller scale...

Except it's better. But again... not many agree.

I would LOVE for it to have great legs... but it won't.

It it an amazing film. And deserves MUCH more than this.

Doc! You haven't even seen the film yet - it's like saying LOTR has a stupid plotline. There is room for fantastic fairy tales in the modern world...


The ladies I know, say he's a cutie, now that he's lost weight - and look forward to his cameos. I didn't even recognize him this time - he has a real part and plays it well in his latest work.

The screenplay is great, BTW.

Of course I haven't seen it, but the way the marketing conveys the plotline is certainly stupid.




Ladies say that Paul Walker and Orlando Bloom are cute as well...hehe...

its a good flick but its also kinda retarded. like bay did in 2005, shymalan is now wishing hed accepted the offert to do superman back in 2004.

You're right about fairyboy Bloom, but Walker's actually been good in two good movies in a row - Running Scared and Into the Blue...

Sorry, I can't believe a guy with Night's depth of talent wants to prostitute himself doing retreads for Hollywood just to stoke their profit furnace, when he already has the power to make his own original projects.

Without an odd director here and there creating original material, Hollywood is going to completely self-canabalize itself even quicker than it already is.

I can understand the studios welcoming him to the assembly line, but what what really surprises me are the number of people here at WOKJ who would like to see him as just another cog in the assembly line movie machine...

Bloom has his shortcomings, but I wouldn't describe him as a fairyboy. Not after they took that ridiculous blonde wig off. Is there some other word for him?

I think the basic Lady in the Water storyline is actually very interesting, it's just the execution that falls completely flat.

I don't mean to sound like a three year old here, but i think the entire film, concept to finished product is pretty fuckin retarded.

Explain.

The movie places a stuttering man who lost his entire family in an Apartment complex. He, as the super, notices someone swimming late at night. This is the Lady from the title.

You see, M. Night created an entire "Bed Time Story" about how land people used to coexist with the people of the "Blue World" (the ocean). These people speak English. But Land people got greedy and started fighting. But the Blue World people stayed pure, like water, as the Super points out.

To help out the greedy people, huge birds that no land person has ever seen flies them to the land, and they must confront a "Chosen One" (no really, that is how the put it) and show them the way. The way the chosen one is directed will end up helping the land people as a whole.

The Chosen One is, of course, M. Night himself. He can write, direct, produce and now act. He must be the chosen one.

Anyways, there are wolves that aren't wolves, but are Scants or something. Their fur is grass and they are green. So that is why no person has seen them. These Scants attack people from the Blue World, but not the land. But there are rules.

The night that the Snarf (lady of the blue world, The main Lady) returns to the blue world, the cannot attack them. If they do, these monkeys that aren't monkeys will kill them. There are three. And they are also made out of grass.

But normal Scants wont attack Snarfs unless they are Rogue Scants. And those usually wont do it either, unless the Snarf is a Madame Snarf. And she is.

So now the protagonist, Cleveland must find people to help him.

You see, there are some normal people that help the Snarfs. Among the people are the Healer, the Guardian, the Guild and the Interpreter. These people are the only people who can see the Snarf leave. No one else can... or else it wont work or something.

And the moral is that no one knows who they are. I'm serious.

Anyways, the main bulk of the movie is Cleveland looking for people who can help, and being wrong a lot. And then he keeps stuttering. And it is annoying.

This is definitely M. Night's worst directed movie. Many of the shots are out of focus and hurt your eyes. And then there were the random shots, like when it showed the sign of The Cove while people were dying. And there were a lot of unnecessary close ups.

The writing is by far the worst in any movie. The Interpreter figures out what to do by looking at cereal boxes. I am not kidding. It hurt me inside when it happened.

The acting was decent by many, but some of the people should not be actors. M. Night was pretty good, but his lines were kept at a minimum.

Despite the absurdity of the Bed Time Story, every single person Cleveland told it to believed it immediately. And that is about 15 people. Just imagine someone telling you that a human that looks like everyone else... that doesn't even have gills, lives in the water. Nope, not happening.

The only good thing I could find was the music... and only the last song. A few of the other songs were out of place and unnecessary. But the song during the climax was very well composed.

M. Night should, in my opinion, stop directing and maybe pick up a different hobby. Like not directing. Or writing.

Overview: This movie is in my top 15 worst movies I have ever seen. I laughed at how absurd the story was, but never laughed at the so-called 'funny parts.' Do not see this movie unless you like pain.

Like I said, it's retarded.

Well, let's just say something in this thread is retarded...

I at least made good with telling you why i thought it was retarded..hence it is retarded.

...the snark was a boojum, you see....

Not a comment on the film or this review, just what crossed my mind while reading this.