The movie industry is a funny thing. Those who were once heroes easily become goats, only to become heroes once more. In fact, that’s what the movie industry is built on. Career renaissance are big business in Hollywood; just look at what happened to John Travolta after “Pulp Fiction” or Mickey Rourke after “The Wrestler”. The fact is, fan’s like nothing more then an actor that they once recognized taking on a new role that brings them back into their good graces. The same goes for Directors as well. And this is why you can never count out some like M. Night Shyamalan.
We all remember the twist at the end of “The Sixth Sense” and how it, in a way, changed what we expected from movies. Suddenly the “Hitchcock” twist was in fashion again (as was the “Hitchcock Cameo”), and suddenly Shyamalan become the hottest director in Hollywood. While “Unbreakable” and “Signs” were well revived, beginning with “The Village” both critics and fans began to turn on Shyamalan. Following the self indulgent “Lady In The Water”, and the almost laughable “The Happening”, people began to completely write off Shyamalan as a has been. He didn’t just need a hit, but he also needed another signature film.
The funny thing about his next film “The Last Airbender” was that while it was the lowest rated “critical” film of his career, it was a box office hit. Heck, the film made 230 million domestically; and while you can mostly chalk that up to the subject matter, the facts remain that Shyamalan scored another hit. Now, M. Night needs something a lot more important: a critical success that fan’s actually love. People have grown tired of the self indulgent cameo’s and the “twists”, they want a good, solid film from M. Night. Does he have it in him? He does. Is he his own worst enemy sometimes in his scripts? Absolutely. But all it takes is one great film to get people believing in him again.