Well... Couldn't find a general M. Night thread... Just separate threads for his movies.
Instead of creating a new thread, I figured I'd revive this one since Unbreakable II continues to churn through the rumor mill...
For some reason, I was thinking about the Fall of M. Night during my commute. What went wrong?
So I started weighing his movies, and I realized that his true high point -- Unbreakable -- is the answer to everything. To a lesser degree, The Village is also a high point for him.
Sixth Sense is an old story. Ghosts who don't know it is a storyline we've seen since the days of the Hammer movies. He just brought the story into the mainstream in what was probably a chance perfect Hollywood storm -- not the least element of which was Willis against the best child actor to come along in ages.
What occurred to me was that M. Night is a closet sci-fi geek. A sort of SIlver Age modernist sci-fi. No ships or razzle dazzle, but Stranger in a Strange Land stuff. The sci-fi/fantasy among us. Twilight Zone stuff, Body Snatchers, and so on.
We get this in his two best movies. Unbreakable is a straight up superhero origin story... But it's not like most superhero origin stories. There's a twist to it. A very vague subtext that there's a scientific explanation. At least, there is with the villain, who seeks out his opposite based not on any sort of supernatural superstition but, instead, an assumption that there's always some sort of universal balance at work.
The Village is the tried and true multi-generational space ark story, which we've seen over and over again in just about every sci-fi show. In this case, it's an impossible Earth-bound setting funded by gajillionaires. A sealed off utopia patrolled by a private police force and somehow enforcing a no-fly zone.
The important aspect of both movies is that they share something vital with the old classic Silver Age sci-fi. They leave you wanting more, they leave you thinking about what happens next. But they don't end on cliffhangers that demand sequels. They simply kick off your imagination. Willis embraces his superhero role, and Mr. Glass lives on in prison like all great villains. The Village still exists, is still enforced, and now can become a more honestly embraced utopia...or not.
