The critics agree: Lady in the Water is a BOMB!

[thatcrazycajun]

When my partner Mary (singing_phoenix) saw the trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's latest film, Lady in the Water, she tugged my elbow and said, "You're taking me to see that." Given her fascination with the ocean and water in general (she is Irish-descended, after all), this was hardly a surprise and I thought it looked like a mildly diverting bit of whimsy to pass an evening.

Now the film has at last been released (allowed to escape?), and I'm wondering if my wandering Songbird (currently visiting family for the weekend) has heard or read the carping of various critics who have seen it. The general consensus seems to be that once again, MNS has proven that either (A) The Sixth Sense was a fluke of the purest sort and he just got lucky with cast, script or some combo thereof; or (B) someone has kidnapped one of the most promising young filmmakers of the past decade and replaced him with a lookalike who is an utter hack. "Self-absorbed," "convoluted," "incoherent" and "silly" are among the kinder adjectives used to describe the film. RottenTomatoes.com, which aggregates published reviews from both pro and non-pro sources, gave it a favorable rating of only 21%. Here in Hotlanta, our newspaper of record's critic reports having been "embarrassed" to watch it. I don't even want to think about what Ebert & Roeper have to say... Wonder if Mary will still want to see it?

Comments

[netpositive.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's depressing to hear, as I was also very impressed by the trailer...

[gorgeousgary]

Interestingly, the Washington Post's critic actually seemed to like it, or at least found it "entertaining". And this is a paper whose critics usually despise anything SF or fantasy.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

When I saw the trailer, I figured the best way to see it was when it came to commercial TV, so it would at least be interrupted by commercials.

NO desire to see it at all.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

I actually greatly enjoyed his last, The Village, and the previous, Signs. I think people are mainly pissed at them for being nothing like the two previous (Unbreakable and Sixth Sense) in anything but Mood Of Suspense. He's taking a tour through every film genre he can think of: Ghosts, comic books, alien invasion/horror, historical drama/horror/coming of age ... I'm looking forward to this latest quite a lot.

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

Very much not my genre, but it did get a decent review in the Washington Post. It may not be as bad as all that.

[filkferengi]

If you're into the water theme, have y'all seen "Lake House" yet? My bridesmaid [who is never wrong when she likes a movie] recommends it highly.