Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal:

"All of which brings us back to the question of expectations, and how Mr. Shyamalan keeps getting work. Eleven years ago he electrified the movie world with the emotional power and dramatic surprise of The Sixth Sense. He followed up with two flawed but intriguing features, Unbreakable and Signs. In the past eight years, though, his oeuvre has gone from bad (The Village) to worse (Lady in the Water) to worst (The Happening.) Purists might argue that his last film was less dreadful than his penultimate one, but the hallmarks were the same: stilted language, robotized acting, glacial pace, ponderous style, dramatic ineptitude and negligible energy. I never meant to make this review an exercise in career assassination, but I can't help thinking of all the lavishly talented filmmakers who have earned and never gotten a shot at big-budget success. What's the secret of this guy's failure?"

The trailer made it look like an incoherent mess, so the trailer was apparently accurate. For me, Shlamayan jumped the shark about half an hour before the end of Signs and hasn't done a thing since I've been the least tempted to see. I liked The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable a lot.

Signs had a wonderful ensemble cast. Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, and then-tiny but even-then-brilliant Abigail Breslin were all superb, and Night directed with a great deal of skill. It's amazing in a horrible, car-wreck sort of way what has happened to him since.

Studios will keep handing this guy a wad of cash to make films

My own guess for MSN's career: deals with Satan never end well. Except for Satan.

Airbender will open with about $60 million. It cost $85 million. It may turn a profit but will result in the planned on trilogy. It's a franchise killer.