The "Send M. Night Shyamalan back to film school" fundraiser

[PeasNCues]

I personally enjoyed "Signs", "The Village" and "Lady in the Water." 

[blahblahblah]

Re: the speculation on whether Shyamalan cares about this stunt or not - Judging from his interviews and the book I read where the author followed around MNS when he was making Lady in the Water, I'd say that Shyamalan probably cares very much indeed if he's aware of this 'project.' He doesn't strike me as the type to laugh or shrug off criticism. Dude has a persecution complex a mile wide. In LitW, he even inserted a 'strawman critic' character as a response to his film critics.

Yeah, I can totally see that.  I think he's very thin-skinned.  I dunno, the whole thing strikes me as rude and reeking of schadenfreude. 

You should read The Man Who Heard Voices (the book I mentioned in my earlier comment). It was very illuminating. It's weird - the author seems to take an overly sympathetic view of MNS, but I came away feeling like MNS was absolutely insufferable, and his ego completely out of control.

I don't know if I think this is rude, as they're essentially criticizing his filmmaking, albeit in an unusual way. I think it's silly and pointless - although the latter is arguable, I guess, since they most likely intend this to be a publicity stunt for their film festival - but not rude.

[LadyClaire]

I believe I may be the only one who liked 'Lady in the Water' 

My Mom LOVES "Lady in the Water".

I'm kind of "so-so" about it. I enjoyed it, but wouldn't buy the DVD.

[NutMeg]

The Last Airbender infuriated me. I think the best way to sum up how I felt about that movie is the fact that he randomly changed the pronunciation of some of the main characters names. WHY?? What purpose did that serve except to tick off the fans? You think you know what will work better than the creators of a successful series? The arrogance of that drove me up the wall.

[HoneyBee]

I am just chiming in to say that I am a huge M. Knight fan, and I lovelovelove all of his movies!  My DH as well.  We own them all. 

I never knew about The Last Airbender before his movie came out, so I was never a fan of it before that.  Maybe that's why I didn't hate it.

He has a very specific style.  To each his own! 

[Miss Misery]

Maybe not, but at the same time no one's raising money to send Uwe Boll or Michael Bay back to film school, and lots of people hate their films as well.  The whole idea strikes me as being terribly rude. 

There was a petition to get Uwe Boll to stop making films, and I'll give Michael Bay a bonus point, just one, for being able to poke some fun at himself in a commercial.

As for M. Night, I liked The Sixth Sense and The Village. Signs was just boring, but maybe that's just me. But it was with Lady in the Water that he really began his downhill spiral. A potentially interesting story got buried under M. Night's arrogance with the character of the film critic whose only purpose was to die horribly and casting himself as the modern day messiah whose book was going to change the world.    About as subtle as a sledgehammer to the skull, no?

[NutMeg]

Another annoying thing about The Last Airbender, which is totally not M. Night Shyamalan's fault, is that the series is called Avatar:The Last Airbender. Given that it came out the same year as another very popular movie named Avatar, I'm sure you can understand why the name got changed.

[Two Ravens]

Another annoying thing about The Last Airbender, which is totally not M. Night Shyamalan's fault, is that the series is called Avatar:The Last Airbender. Given that it came out the same year as another very popular movie named Avatar, I'm sure you can understand why the name got changed.

I think the title change was the least annoying thing about the movie.    The random changes to character name pronunciations, and leeching all of the humor out of a very funny series were much higher crimes.

[Giggity]

I'd rather have the title changed, and the story recognizable, than have the title stay the same and the story go missing.

I Am Legend, I am looking RIGHT AT YOU.

[Larrabee]

I'd rather have the title changed, and the story recognizable, than have the title stay the same and the story go missing.

I Am Legend, I am looking RIGHT AT YOU.

I see your 'I Am Legend' and raise you an 'I, Robot'.

(Maybe its Will Smith  )

[Aeris]

I'd rather have the title changed, and the story recognizable, than have the title stay the same and the story go missing.

I Am Legend, I am looking RIGHT AT YOU.

I see your 'I Am Legend' and raise you an 'I, Robot'.

(Maybe its Will Smith  )

Nah, Will Smith had nothing to do with Golden Compass.

[PeterM]

I'd rather have the title changed, and the story recognizable, than have the title stay the same and the story go missing.

I Am Legend, I am looking RIGHT AT YOU.

I see your 'I Am Legend' and raise you an 'I, Robot'.

(Maybe its Will Smith  )

To be fair, "I, Robot" did manage to capture the spirit of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics very well. I haven't seen "I Am Legend," but from what I've heard it completely subverted the ending of the original story.

[Larrabee]

I'd rather have the title changed, and the story recognizable, than have the title stay the same and the story go missing.

I Am Legend, I am looking RIGHT AT YOU.

I see your 'I Am Legend' and raise you an 'I, Robot'.

(Maybe its Will Smith  )

To be fair, "I, Robot" did manage to capture the spirit of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics very well. I haven't seen "I Am Legend," but from what I've heard it completely subverted the ending of the original story.

It was the transformation of Susan Calvin into a hot young thing that was the final straw!  I actually don't hate I,Robot and will watch it, but I do wonder what Asimov would have thought.  It seems to start out with the three laws but not really go as deeply into their implications and potential as the original stories in order to be more of a standard action film.  I did like Sonny though, especially as he was voiced by Alan Tudyk!

I Am Legend, yeah the ending was a million miles away from the book.  It would have been a brave director to spend that much money on something closer to the original!

[Black Delphinium]

They had to change the name of The Last Airbender since the name Avatar was already registered, or so says IMDB.

"The film was originally titled ""Avatar: The Last Airbender" (2005)", after the TV show it was based on. However, James Cameron and 20th Century Fox had already registered the film title Avatar (2009), so the word was dropped from the title to avoid confusion."

[hyzenthlay]

They had to change the name of The Last Airbender since the name Avatar was already registered, or so says IMDB.

"The film was originally titled ""Avatar: The Last Airbender" (2005)", after the TV show it was based on. However, James Cameron and 20th Century Fox had already registered the film title Avatar (2009), so the word was dropped from the title to avoid confusion."

Yeah but they pronounced it Uhvatar in the movie . . . so they could have used that