Every M. Night Shyamalan Movie Ranked From Worst To Best
From awesome, to terrible, to pretty good again.
M. Night Shyamalan's new movie Split is in cinemas now, and boy, what a wild ride the last decade-or-so has been for the filmmaker.
He's had one of the most fascinating careers of any active director, from early Oscar-nominated highs to hitting depressing rock-bottom in the 2010s, and seemingly surging back with solid reviews for his latest effort.
Shyamalan has made 12 feature films to date of wildly varying quality, such that marathoning his filmography is quite the bizarre experience indeed, so diverse tonally and quality-wise as it is.
It's safe to say that on the strength of his first few movies, nobody could've quite seen the route his career would take, and if nothing else, you have to admire his ambition at dabbling in so many different types of movie.
From the flaming dumpster fires to the surprising successes, here is every M. Night Shyamalan movie ranked from worst to best...
12. The Last Airbender (2010)
Shyamalan hit the bottom of the well with this almost universally-loathed live-action take on the beloved animated series. The director seemed totally out of his depth with a $150 million budget, for though his script is easily the worst thing about it, the amateur staging and hilariously awful performances suggest Shyamalan just couldn't direct all the moving parts at this blockbuster level.
The CGI is fine but that's just about it: the action sequences are boring, the characters are forgettable, the cast can't do much with them (poor Dev Patel), and it just feels like a grossly-calculated project on all fronts.
It still made over double its budget at the box office, so it wasn't a total disaster for Shyamalan, and at least it's virtually impossible for him to sink any lower than this dreck...right?