Its funny. It was my responding to your very humorous post about waiting in line on Christmas (and mentioning 'The Happening') that triggered me to write this.
I think with Mark Wahlberg's character, he started out so deadpan that I expected to see him open up and develop as the film went on-not stay robotic and deadpan throughout the whole movie. I just didn't care whether the characters lived or died. Like, in The Village, the character of Abby (Bryce Dallas Howard's character) was so interesting and detailed that I was invested in her even if the ending was telegraphed well in advance. I didn't care that I figured out the ending-I cared about Abby. In this one, I didn't care if the whole damn planet was wiped out. And technically (as a member of the human race) I was IN that movie. And I still didn't care.
Add to that the fact that I had unknowingly rejected a movie featuring Leslie Bibb over that, and you have a Greek tragedy in the making.
Did you see Quarantine? I wanted to check that out, but it was in and out of theaters so fast. I thought it looked decent, but these days just about every preview can look 'decent'.
Good to know (about Quarantine). Saves me from wasting time renting it.
Seeing Leslie in Iron Man reminded me about Popular, and made me start reading fics from Shadowrealm and P&P, which led me to the OTP LJ page. So that was great for me in many ways!
Yeah, Shyamalan's movies do seem to be that way with folks. I actually liked all of them so far with the exception of the latest one-although I hadn't seen Lady in the Water because I'd heard not so great things about it. 'Unbreakable' was my favorite, but most folks don't seem to like it. I think I had a pretty unique experience with that one: the opening scrawl about comic books came up, and based on the Sixth Sense and the preview I'd seen for Unbreakable, it wasn't what I thought. And I said to myself: "I have to completely reset my expectations about this and approach this with a blank slate." And somehow, it worked. And I loved it.
One thing I do like about his movies is the strange perspective. When I realized that Unbreakable was basically a superhero movie told from the POV of a working class guy, or that 'Signs' is essentially Independence Day as it would look from a farm house in Pennsylvania. His off-kilter viewpoint has always been cool.
I think with Mark Wahlberg's character, he started out so deadpan that I expected to see him open up and develop as the film went on-not stay robotic and deadpan throughout the whole movie. I just didn't care whether the characters lived or died. Like, in The Village, the character of Abby (Bryce Dallas Howard's character) was so interesting and detailed that I was invested in her even if the ending was telegraphed well in advance. I didn't care that I figured out the ending-I cared about Abby. In this one, I didn't care if the whole damn planet was wiped out. And technically (as a member of the human race) I was IN that movie. And I still didn't care.
Add to that the fact that I had unknowingly rejected a movie featuring Leslie Bibb over that, and you have a Greek tragedy in the making.
Did you see Quarantine? I wanted to check that out, but it was in and out of theaters so fast. I thought it looked decent, but these days just about every preview can look 'decent'.
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Seeing Leslie in Iron Man reminded me about Popular, and made me start reading fics from Shadowrealm and P&P, which led me to the OTP LJ page. So that was great for me in many ways!
Yeah, Shyamalan's movies do seem to be that way with folks. I actually liked all of them so far with the exception of the latest one-although I hadn't seen Lady in the Water because I'd heard not so great things about it. 'Unbreakable' was my favorite, but most folks don't seem to like it. I think I had a pretty unique experience with that one: the opening scrawl about comic books came up, and based on the Sixth Sense and the preview I'd seen for Unbreakable, it wasn't what I thought. And I said to myself: "I have to completely reset my expectations about this and approach this with a blank slate." And somehow, it worked. And I loved it.
One thing I do like about his movies is the strange perspective. When I realized that Unbreakable was basically a superhero movie told from the POV of a working class guy, or that 'Signs' is essentially Independence Day as it would look from a farm house in Pennsylvania. His off-kilter viewpoint has always been cool.
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