Lady in the Water - Curse of the Sixth Sense? (No Spoilers)

Rating: 3 out of 5 (Average)
*Dedication caption at the end of credits.

   Lady in the Water is not as good as The Sixth Sense but it is a good movie, so dont throw the baby out with the bathwater.  M. Night Shyamalan will forever be cursed as Orson Wells was as having a phenomenal first movie.  But just like Wells we should treat each of Shyamalans movies as what they are, which are great stories.  Youre not going in to see epic cinematic moments or ground breaking special effects and there is where we find the real voice of Shyamalan, his talent is in the crafting and telling of a story.  On a personal level Lady in the Water is my third favorite film from Shyamalan, first of course Sixth Sense, second being Unbreakable.
   The acting is great.  Some people might be put off by the unique camera angles in the beginning of the movie.  This is a good family movie; however some younger viewers might find it boring.  Final verdict, this is a must for Shyamalan fans, and your typical moving going audience will see it as an OK film.  Something that I liked about this movie is at the end it just ends.  Older movies were a lot like that, or things would be immediately wrapped up in the last lines of dialogue.  Sadly modern movies feel the need to drag things out when the movie should have ended long ago.  Superman Returns is a good example of this.  It felt like that movie was never going to end.  
   I believe Shyamalan is never going to get rid of the curse of Sixth Sense.  Also there is a chance that Shyamalan might be loosing Hollywood credibility in the eyes of the studios.  I would suggest to Shyamalan that he could stop being a director but remain a writer and producer.  He could find a lesser known director that shares his vision and style then continue making movies his way.  This could potentially end the curse of Sixth Sense.      

Spoilers

   Lady in the Water is about a group of water people or water nymphs as stated in the film.  Who centuries ago would talk to man and advise him on the world and nature.  However man decided to move on and not listen to the water people.  Since then the water people have tried to talk to man by sending their people via large eagles.  The water people would try and talk with man, but their main purpose is to find a vessel or writer who will be inspired and inspire man and change the world to the better as it was when man and the water people were like long ago. 

   Our water person, Story is found by a caretaker of a condominium.  They form a friendship and the caretaker realizes that everything is like a typical story.  Slowly he realizes people in his building are also roles in a story and recruits them to help Story get back home. 

   This movie is pretty much like a retelling of E.T. and I was able to predict the translator was the little boy; the guild was the sisters and the guardian being the weird arm guy.  However I was hoping that the caretaker was the guardian, and that after talking with the older man something inspired him to be come the guardian that he is.  Unfortunately he was the healer.  There are no major twists, but to me its still a good movie.

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