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Lady In The Water
I'll just jump straight into this, what I really liked about the film is that it was a fantasy/fairy tale, not one of M. Night Shyamalan's pseudo horror films. This was really a pure fairy tale story set in modern time in a limited location.
That is another thing that I liked was the fact that this fairy tale was limited to only a motel complex, and it wasn't attempted to be spread all over this amazing fantasy-esque world. Having a limited location helped build up the emotion in the film as the characters were almost trapped in one place.
Also, Shamylan did a much better job of constructing a story in this film then in some of his more recent pseudo horror films. In this film there wasn't a focus on a twist coming in the film, because there wasn't one, but typically in other films he has done, there is such an emphasis on the twist that the film becomes boring to watch if you have figured out the twist, or if seeing it a second time knowing the twist.
Another thing that worked was the diversity of characters. Each character was unique in the film which helped keep it more interesting. Some of the characters were a little more cliche then I would have prefered, but for the most part the cliche characters still fit in as viable parts of the story and they didn't seem wrong for the story.
What I didn't like was the rip on the film critic and M. Night Shyamalan's role in the film. I felt like the film critic was too contrived for the story and didn't really fit in or matter in the grand scheme of the story. And Shyamalan's role was just to grand for a director to put himself into. It was extremely conceited, I felt, for him to take that role as the person who was going to change the world. I don't have a problem with director's in a film, but they can't make themselves that powerful a character, even if the power was never shown in the film and just implied.
Overall Grade: B-
Acting: C+
Story: B+
Visual/Audio: B-
I'll just jump straight into this, what I really liked about the film is that it was a fantasy/fairy tale, not one of M. Night Shyamalan's pseudo horror films. This was really a pure fairy tale story set in modern time in a limited location.
That is another thing that I liked was the fact that this fairy tale was limited to only a motel complex, and it wasn't attempted to be spread all over this amazing fantasy-esque world. Having a limited location helped build up the emotion in the film as the characters were almost trapped in one place.
Also, Shamylan did a much better job of constructing a story in this film then in some of his more recent pseudo horror films. In this film there wasn't a focus on a twist coming in the film, because there wasn't one, but typically in other films he has done, there is such an emphasis on the twist that the film becomes boring to watch if you have figured out the twist, or if seeing it a second time knowing the twist.
Another thing that worked was the diversity of characters. Each character was unique in the film which helped keep it more interesting. Some of the characters were a little more cliche then I would have prefered, but for the most part the cliche characters still fit in as viable parts of the story and they didn't seem wrong for the story.
What I didn't like was the rip on the film critic and M. Night Shyamalan's role in the film. I felt like the film critic was too contrived for the story and didn't really fit in or matter in the grand scheme of the story. And Shyamalan's role was just to grand for a director to put himself into. It was extremely conceited, I felt, for him to take that role as the person who was going to change the world. I don't have a problem with director's in a film, but they can't make themselves that powerful a character, even if the power was never shown in the film and just implied.
Overall Grade: B-
Acting: C+
Story: B+
Visual/Audio: B-