Okay, so I have come to enjoy M. Night Shyamalan movies, dating back some years now. In recent years, it has become more or less a norm or my son and I to watch these movies together. Probably, you can call us fans. Most of his movies I had seen years earlier, and some I saw even before he was born. Most I saw before he was even born. But we had become fans of the superhero trilogy together. I had always loved Unbreakable since first seeing it many years ago. Of course, like everyone, I loved the Sixth Sense as well. But I heard about Split being part of what became the Unbreakable trilogy, and after seeing it, and knowing Mr. Glass was soon coming out, I thought it would be a good idea for my son and I to go see that in the theaters together.
So we did, and have more or less become fans ever since.
Here's the thing though: I once heard a coworker say something that sounds more or less accurate when it comes to M. Night Shyamalan movies. He said that either he hits it out of the park, or they seem like disasters. Now, I tend to be a bit more forgiving about some of his movies than other people are. A lot of people did not like Unbreakable, but I frankly loved it. Some did not like Mr. Glass, but I very much enjoyed that one, as well. Ditto with The Village, which many did not like, but which I actually found quite enjoyable (and the twist ending did not turn me off, as it did so many others). Signs was a great film, although that received a fair degree of criticism, as well. About the only one of his movies that I was not especially thrilled with after viewing it - and it was the first of his movies that I saw with my son - was The Airbender.
Hell, I did not even hate The Happening, even though it seems that everyone else did. Granted, it is not the most believable movie, and there may be problems with it. I never said it was my favorite movie. But that said, it hardly seemed like the worst movie ever, as some people seem to almost suggest it was. Frankly, it seemed entertaining, and if you allow a lot of poetic license, admittedly, perhaps some lessons. Again, it was not my favorite movie, but I certainly did not hate it, as so many others apparently did.
Of course, that meant that when I heard about the new movie coming up, both my son and I were interested in seeing it. At the very least, it would be a good couple of hours of entertainment.
Now, before I proceed, I want to do the usual warning, because yes, there will be spoilers. In fact, there will likely be a lot of them, and right from the beginning. So, if you have not yet seen the movie and intend to, and do not want to have it spoiled, then this is your warning to stop read.
SPOILER ALERT!
Last warning, major spoilers ahead!
Okay, if you are still reading, then I have to assume that you either have seen the movie already, or for some reason, do not mind it getting spoiled. Either way, here goes:
As expected, this movie was entertaining. It advertises as a beach where people find themselves aging incredibly fast, so I knew to expect that much. Hell, that does not even qualify as a spoiler, surely. But they do a good job of it.
That said, you get a distinct impression right from the first that the resort is not a place to be trusted. Sure, there would be no real way for the characters in this movie to know that ahead of time. However, as a viewing audience, it is too easy to decipher some less than noble motives.
One thing that really bothered me, though, and which became an increasing source of irritation and, frankly, disbelief for me, was the lack of shock among the characters. I mean, this really started to get in the way of the movie. The characters would all see something frankly impossible to believe - and there is one thing like this after another in this movie - and it seems like nobody really reacts. When the first incision is made, and it immediately closes up and heals, to the point where even the blood disappears, nobody seems all that surprised, much less shocked. This is something that obviously, none of them have ever seen or presumably would have imagined possible. Yet immediately, they offer to help keep the cut open, as if this were a normal, everyday thing. That bothered me, to the point that it served as a major distraction. What I mean by that is this: when I watch either a very good movie or television show, or read a really good book, it is easy to get lost in it, to be completely and utterly absorbed by it. But once there is something like this, where it feels like these are paid actors on screen hardly reacting to what would be not merely surprising, but outright shocking in real life, just takes me out of that absorption.
Unfortunately, it did not stop there. They are growing old at an incredible, even impossible, pace. Yet nobody seems completely freaked out by it. They are not freaked out by the kids growing at an impossible rate. They are not as shocked as they should be by the quick pregnancy of the little girl, and then the quick delivery. And the baby dies almost immediately, perhaps as stated in the movie by lack of attention, but presumably also because of a lack of nourishment. But they cannot mention that, because obviously, that would make everyone wonder why these characters themselves can go as long as they can without food, if time is moving so impossibly fast? But I digress. They are not overwhelmed by this whole thing, certainly not nearly as much as yo would think people would be in such a situation.
In fact, for the most part, they remain unbelievably - and I use that term literally - calm throughout. A lot of people think that I have a mostly calm demeanor, but in the same situation, my reaction would probably be: "WTF? How the HELL is this happening?" But these people move right away to possible reasons and then solutions, which smacked of moving the story along to me. Again, I wanted to be completely absorbed in this movie, but the reactions - or in this case, the lack of them - was just frankly too unbelievable for me as a viewer to move past. Maybe that's just me, but that is a major criticism.
Also, while there is some token sadness - which possibly, maybe could also be taken as some measure of shock, if you stretch it a bit - it never feels like there is any emotional resonance to the loss of the characters. The loss of the baby should be really sad, but somehow, it all happens so fast, that only one character (the boy who becomes the father) truly reacts. One after the other, the characters die off, and while I wanted to feel some sadness, it all somehow felt...well, scripted. Not real. Not emotional, not shocking. Just there, because it needed to be part of the story. Again, this was a distraction that prevented me, at the very least, from truly getting into this movie, which had started promisingly enough.
Then, of course, the twist. I had expected it to be one of two things. Surely, someone at the resort was somehow growing younger and/or stronger and/or healthier as a result of this. That turned out not to be the case, really. The second guess that I had - and it puzzles me why this was not my first guess - was that this was some kind of scientific experiment. That is indeed what it turned out to be. Now granted, they did give some explanation about how the minerals on this particular beach somehow made human cells grow at an impossibly fast pace. As with The Happening, I am willing to give some license to that. The scientific experiment aspect as a little predictable, although they did at least make some kind of effort to make the characters behind this experiment at least be a bit human, doing this for the benefit of humankind, even if most would not understand. So be it. You know that a M. Night Shyamalan movie is bound to have a twist at the end, and this works in that regard, as does the experiment being shut down.
In the end, I felt it was an okay movie. The idea behind it is fascinating, even terrifying: a paradise that you absolutely feel a need to escape, aging impossibly fast, and all of the scary and unsavory elements of aging along with that. And again, no real problems on my end with the twist ending. That said, the lack of true human reactions - particularly the sheer shock given the impossible nature of these truly stunning developments - just reminded me too much that this was just a movie, and that the story line had to move along. No time for human reaction, it seemed, and that detracted beyond from this movie beyond measure. Personally, I think the movie would have done better to focus far more on the human reaction, because that is really how we relate to the characters in the best case scenario. Since the reactions were simply not believable, it just got in the way, and made enjoying this movie much more difficult than it frankly should have been.
Unfortunately, that makes it hard for me to recommend this movie. Fans of M. Night Shyamalan will surely see this movie. Hell, eventually, surely I will see this movie a second time. But assuming that happens, I will have to actively search for things that maybe take the bad taste out of my mouth from this first viewing.
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