I hated this. I felt like M. Night was hitting me over the head with the message of this film, and also with smug superiority. I’m not one who just hates all of his work without care, I actually liked some of them, nor am I someone who is always on about how predictable they are or are not. This time though, it was way too predictable and I think the story lost some of what it was trying to do by being so blowfully unoriginal that I could guess it all the first time I saw every character. The message itself was massacred because of the awful storyline.

The one plus of the entire movie was that I liked the characters. Some of the more minor characters were extremely likeable, and Paul Giamatti was almost heart-breaking.

That said, I’m so sorry I wasted my time on this movie. I can’t help but feel like maybe it could have been done better, that it wasn’t a complete waste, but I can’t think of what would have helped… except to somehow alter the tone—it should have been more playful and less seriously SMUG.

It examines more the person watching it than that it tells a new story. The tale is predictable, but excellently exposed.
You either love it or hate it, just as the other consumer’s comments show.
I personally loved it and I smiled all the way through the one and a half hours of the movie.
It reminded me of “Spirited away”, which I have seen just recently.
The high rise appartment block was remeniscent of the bath house in “Spirited Away” and the block in “Kung Fu Hustle”, just like the fairie tale characters living in it. They have to to explore their functions in the story, such as The Healer or The Guardian, therefore finding their purpose, their place in the Universe that is this particular moment in time. The task must be done or else, and only when the lead character finds his strength and pulls through with all his might (and goodness in his heart), then the world will be cured.
There were a few scary moments, but I get scared easily when I am completely taken up with a movie.
I also nearly cried at the end, which I didn’t expect at all.

Call me naive, but I like a good bed time story.
If you’ve seen “Lady”: I’d like to eat a cookie, not wipe the spilt milk off my face, curl up on the sittee and listen.

This is quite possibly the worst film I’ve seen all year. No, don’t tell me that I had high expectations for this film, because Shyamalan’s work is hit-or-miss, so I wasn’t expecting anything until I saw it. Don’t tell me I don’t understand the message, because whatever “message” the film had was lost in its atrocious storyline and mundane execution.

The casting and acting were good, I’ll admit, but I felt bad for Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard for being in the limelight of such a bad film. I found it funny that M. Night gave himself such a big role when he usually winds up in tiny cameos, but I don’t think it can be used an excuse for how bad this was.

I’m disappointed. Really disappointed. It’s just so unreal to me how a director with real talent can churn out something like this.

Personally, I think this is one of M. Night Shayamalan’s finest work to date. I think a lot of people have misjudged this movie’s intent, and I think most of the same people hated The Village because it wasn’t a horror movie but rather a story about the good intentions of a group of people with utopian ideals who try to overcome human nature only to find that it simply isn’t possible. I do not by any means claim to understand exactly what its messages are, but I do think that if you go into this movie with the superficial expectations for it to be another box office hit thriller in the vein of The Sixth Sense (which I think is one of the best of that genre) then you will very likely be disappointed. I found this movie to be a very intricately woven and very emotionally charged story about the mundanity of life as opposed to the magic of stories, and how blurred the distinction between the two can be if you’re willing to let it. The characters are very real people; they are unorganized, incompetant, ordinary and not particularly attractive, but by the end of the movie you somehow feel as if there is some cohesive force that connects the most random people and that each one of them has played a part in something more important. The performances were incredibly visceral and just brilliant. It’s also really quite amazingly shot, especially if you pay attention to how a scene can suddenly become chilling with just a few subtle changes. I didn’t expect a lot from this movie, but was definitely pleasantly surprised, and I can’t think of any other film that has made the possibility of magical occurrances in real life seem more feasible.

I almost had to gnaw off one of my own limbs to survive this moviegoing experience. The entire film was laced with the worst kind of stale cheeze and yet is embraced with an enthusiasm that utterly beggars belief. It’s meant to be a fairy tale, I realize, but it just doesn’t succeed on any filmic or literary level as far a I’m concerned. Far too confident – Shymalan’s worst outing by far.

I loved this movie – it shattered my expectations. I thought it would be another “The Village” or “Signs”. But it wasn’t. While it had its twists, they were rather fresh and interesting. This movie is character-driven – not something that does well these days with audiences craving mindless action. It made a fairy tale come to life – and don’t we all want to believe in magic? That we all have a purpose? This movie was like a good novel to me, I guess that’s why I loved it so much.

M. Night Charlatan – that’s all I have to say about this snore fest.

A load of crap, if I may say so.

I love how unique this movie is to all his other movies. Every single movie is unique. It’s like he tries to outdo himself which is common in most talented directors. He is my favortie Director by far.
Anyways I love the originality of this modern fairy-tale. He took ordinary people and made them into heroes. Plus I love the angles he used in shooting his film. And yes it was funny lol. Brilliant. I simply loved it! I felt small again, like a child.
^_

After The Village, I was extremely disappointed with M. Night, as many were … and I think it tainted my expectations of this movie for him to “redeem” himself in my eyes.

Expectations were too high.

When I heard the film was going to be about a bedtime story I was thinking mermaids. So I was pleased that it was something totally foreign to me.

I also thought it was funny in a lot of places, something which you don’t usually see in Shyamalan’s films.

The part with the movie critic was great. He was the only one who got killed and he led the protagonist down the wrong path with his presumptuous arrogance. I know, I know, Shamalyan is making his own embittered point about movie critics, but still I thought it was a point worth making.

It seems that all people care about today in movie critique is the “suspension of disbelief” factor. As if everyone learned this catch phrase and then measured every movie’s worth against this yard stick.

Let me tell you quite frankly that this movie did not suspend my disbelief. The CGI was quite bad and the story was in many ways corny and unbelieveable.

I liked it anyway. Yes, that’s right. I didn’t think that the movie was believeable and it had bad effects, but I liked it nonetheless.

Why? In was in part because the acting was pretty good, but even that was not it. It was because of the story. The story is something that for the most part Hollywood has lost sight of in its need to shock and awe you with entertainment.

It was as if M. Night had a story that he wanted to tell, the story had purpose and it meant something to him. A story that had a very faerie tale like quality to it. Instead of simply telling the story he decided to write, produce, direct and act it into a full motion picture. Giving that much of yourself to something has worth and it comes through in the film.

A quick look at Yahoo movies shows that film critics didn’t like this movie. They gave it a C. It is ironic that the only character in this movie who dies is a film critic who thinks he has life figured out and states that “There is no originality left in the world.” This movie was not made for film critics and it shows. This movie may not have been made for you either. But I think that if you are willing to set aside what you are supposed to do to critique a movie and just watch it like you would listen to a bedtime story as a kid, you will find it that this movie was made for you too.

I loved this movie. It’s a sort of fairytale meets reality story – Bryce Dallas Howard, the lady in the water, comes from her world to an apartment complex where Paul Giamatti is the super, and needs help from some of the residents to get back home.

There’s a really great cast of characters – including M. Night Shyamalan, in a pretty big supporting part.

Go see it! It’s a great story.

While I loved Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, I didn’t think Signs and The Village were all that great. The Lady in the Water has an interesting premise, so I’m hoping this will be a good film. If not, M. Night’s future movies might have to go on the “see it on cable” list.