Making it as a director in Hollywood is a difficult undertaking for any filmmaker, but all it takes is one film to completely change someone's life. As we have seen with people like Tim Burton or Kevin Smith, each filmmaker brings a unique style to the table, and once they catch on with audiences, they will be working for years.
During the late 90s, M. Night Shyamalan dropped his first major hit and became one of the hottest filmmakers in the world. After having some major highs, the filmmaker encountered some dreadful lows, including making a film that only received a 5% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite the reviews, the movie still made $300 million.
Let's take a quick look at the film in question.
M. Night Shyamalan Has Had Some Massive Hits
During the 90s, M. Night Shyamalan burst onto the scene thanks to his incredbile filmmaking abilities, and it did not take long for the filmmaker to be looked at as someone who could thrive in Hollywood for decades. The decade had already given rise to names like Quentin Tarantino, and Shyamalan seemed like the next man up.
With hits like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs from 1999 to 2002, the director simply couldn't miss during that era of his career. He has even had some recent offerings, like Split, which have caught on with audiences.
As great as it was to see his rise to the top, even Shyamalan wasn't immune from dropping a few duds.
A Few Of His Flims Have Fallen Flat
M. Night Shyamalan's biggest hits are certainly what most people choose to remember, but it is hard to ignore his misfires. Virtually every filmmaker lays an egg at some point, and Shyamalan's duds were the topic of much discussion from film fans who had loved his previous works.
Movies like The Happening, After Earth, and Lady in the Water are a few of his works that failed to catch on in the same way that major hits like Signs did. Again, most every director has a few films like this, but given the acclaim that Shyamalan received, it's almost like the fans took these lackluster movies personally.
The Happening, in particular, is one Shyamalan film that took a lot of heat from people, and even Mark Wahlberg, who starred in the film, had a thing or two to say about it.
"It was a really bad movie…f*** it. It is what it is. F****** trees, man. The plants. F*** it. You can’t blame me for wanting to try to play a science teacher. At least I wasn’t playing a cop or a crook," the actor said.
When looking through Shyamalan's worst flicks, one stands out largely due to its score on Rotten Tomatoes and its ability to somehow make a few hundred million at the box office.
'The Last Airbender' Got Horrible Reviews And Made Over $300 Million
Based on the legendary animated series, The Last Airbender was looking to do something major on the big screen. Adaptations like this don't always pan out, but with Shyamalan on board with a talented cast, there was hope that this movie could live up to expectations.
Spoiler alert: it didn't.
Currently, this film has a 5% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was ripped up by critics and fans alike, with some reviews pulling no punches.
According to the review from Ain't It Cool, "Burdened by [a] never-ending onslaught of expository dialogue awkwardly delivered by actors giving career-worst performances across the board, The Last Airbender is so outrageously bad it's a wonder it ever got before cameras."
Yeah, this movie was all types of bad, and it seemed like no one actually had something decent to say about the movie. Film is subjective, of course, but it's pretty telling when both critics and fans are willing to completely dump all over a movie. These two parties don't always agree on things when it comes to major movies, but it seemed like everyone hated The Last Airbender.
Somehow, someway, this film was able to generate over $300 million at the global box office. Nevertheless, it went down in flames critically and is all but forgotten about by those that had to sit through it.
Fortunately, this movie didn't exactly ruin Shyamalan's career, but it certainly didn't help it either. Having the benefit of the successful cartoon behind it did little to help this film critically, but it still made a decent sum at the box office.
