I finally got to see Split, and I
feel like I really need to talk about it and M. Night Shyamalan. But before going further, know that there
will be many spoilers, so please watch Split before reading this. You should anyways, but I really don’t want
to spoil it for you as someone did for me.
I will start by saying I am a
Shyamalan fan. No, not his newer stuff,
but his early movies are some of my favorites.
I can still remember an idiot spoiling The Sixth Sense for me in speech
class in high school. It had only been
out for a couple of weeks and he thought it would be funny to spoil it for
everyone. So when I finally got to see
it, even though I knew the twist, I still loved it. Then came Unbreakable, which is still one of
the best comic book movies of all time.
Some people thought it was long and boring, but that’s what I love about
Shyamalan. He is deliberate, has a story
to tell, and takes his time doing it. I
have to say I really liked Signs and The Village too. The Lady in the Water was a somewhat surreal
experience as I was the only person in the theater. I did not think it was great, but it was
pretty good for what it was (a fairy tale).
Then there was The Happening, one of the most disappointing movies I
have ever seen. I skipped The Last
Airbender, but I did make my way to After Earth which, while not great, is not
as bad as many people say. I wanted to
see The Visit, but I have not had a chance to yet.
How big of a fan am I? One of my most memorable papers in undergrad
was for a class on Edgar Allan Poe where I compared the use of colors in
Shyamalan’s movies to Poe’s works.
(Alfred Hitchcock, by the way, is the intermediary. Hitchcock loved Poe, Shyamalan loves
Hitchcock.) This is what I’m talking
about deliberate, watch his movies and look at his use of colors. Mr. Glass always is in purple or there is
purple around him. David Dunn is
surrounded by green. Anything that a
dead person interacts with in The Sixth Sense is red (that’s the biggest clue
about Willis’ character). I could go on,
but you get the point.
Leading up to Split was a weird
thing. The first time I saw a trailer, I
was mildly interested. At some point I
decided it was a “wait until home video” movie.
Then, when it came out, I started to hear good things. I changed my mind and decided I would see it,
but I just did not have time. Then,
sometime last week (after only a week in the theaters) I unfortunately saw a
story on the frontpage of Yahoo that spoiled the ending. “What does Shyamalan have in plan for
Unbreakable 3?” At first I thought it
was a typo, but then I realized, no, Split is #2. Well that’s great, thanks for spoiling it
right away. I figured I’d take it like
The Sixth Sense and go anyways, though unfortunately instead of just watching
the movie like most people I was waiting for the reveal.
Before getting to that, let’s
talk about the movie. It’s definitely
signature Shyamalan. It takes its time,
spending extra beats on scenes that most movies would quick cut from. I see it as a great callback to older movies
that have similar paces, though unfortunately many people today just say “it’s
boring.” It’s also sometimes overly
serious, especially with the psychologist.
It’s beautifully shot. No matter
what you think about his movies, no matter how bad they might be, they are
always beautiful.
Then there’s James McAvoy. WOW!
I’ve known for awhile that he’s a very good actor, but this was
amazing. He went for it with each of the
personalities and knocked it out of the park.
So many people are talking about the little boy, Hedwig, and rightly
so.
The rest of the cast was very
good as well. At first the main girl,
Casey, seemed weird, but as we learn her history we definitely understand why
she is the way she is. I will agree that
many of the other characters are not well fleshed out, that’s a legitimate
complaint about the movie, but it is not a huge problem.
Now, let’s talk about the
ending. As the story is leading up to
the beast, I was worrying how far they would go.
The way Casey was spared was a
bit weak, but it also kind of makes sense.
I just wanted to see her fight back a little more. The good thing is that means the beast (or
The Horde?) is still lose, which means Bruce Willis will hunt him down.
Speaking of…I really liked the
reveal. Even though I knew what was
coming, when I started to hear the Unbreakable theme playing I started to get
really pumped. The comment from the
random woman about what happened 15 years ago, I suppose it is unusual that
someone would remember that, but not necessarily if it was well known how many
people Mr. Glass killed. That final shot
of Bruce Willis was just a great nod to the fans. I am very much looking forward to more in the
Unbreakable franchise. I remember
reading back in 2000 that Shyamalan had been planning a trilogy from the
beginning. I am glad that he is finally
getting a chance to finish that project.
So, I really liked the
movie. It was suspenseful, well acted,
beautifully shot, and had me wanting more.
I’d give it a solid 8/10.
How would I rank the movies? This is fairly simple.
The great:
The Sixth Sense
Unbreakable
The good:
Split
Signs
The Village
Ok:
Devil (producer)
Lady in the Water
After Earth
Ugly:
The Happening
Another great aspect of Shyamalan
movies has long been his use of James Newton Howard (though unfortunately not
in his last two). This is truly one of
the best director/composer combinations of all time. This ranking is a little harder. The amazing thing is all of these are good,
if not great.
The Village (it does not get any
better than Hillary Hahn’s violin in The Gravel Road)
Unbreakable
Signs
The Sixth Sense
Lady in the Water (if the whole
score was as good as The Great Eatlon this would be much higher)
Split
After Earth
The Happening
The Last Airbender
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