I think that many people today equate a good movie with a movie that totally deceives you until the very end where the truth is revealed and you're left in awe of how clever the filmmakers were. I think we have Shyamalan to thank for this. And so now we have a bunch of people out there that come up with this great idea for a movie, but that's it. Yet people don't seem to care because they are just interested in being duped and surprised.
The difference is this: Shyamalan carefully crafted ALL aspects of his movies, not just the "big idea." What we see today -- in movies like this -- is an interesting "big idea", but other the other aspects of the film are not very well done. But when we judge a movie, we need to look at it for what it is, every single part of it, not just how much it surprises us.
Half-light has a beautiful soundtrack, and the scenery was spectacular as well. However, it just seemed like one cliché after another. All throughout the movie (but especially in the beginning) there was just one conversation after another that was obviously setup to establish ideas, setting, character, time lapse, etc. They spent all their time trying to creatively deceive us, and hardly any time creatively establishing these elements of the story. I also found the characters uninteresting and flat; not that the acting was bad (it wasn't great) but the characters were not developed. But that's just my two cents.
The difference is this: Shyamalan carefully crafted ALL aspects of his movies, not just the "big idea." What we see today -- in movies like this -- is an interesting "big idea", but other the other aspects of the film are not very well done. But when we judge a movie, we need to look at it for what it is, every single part of it, not just how much it surprises us.
Half-light has a beautiful soundtrack, and the scenery was spectacular as well. However, it just seemed like one cliché after another. All throughout the movie (but especially in the beginning) there was just one conversation after another that was obviously setup to establish ideas, setting, character, time lapse, etc. They spent all their time trying to creatively deceive us, and hardly any time creatively establishing these elements of the story. I also found the characters uninteresting and flat; not that the acting was bad (it wasn't great) but the characters were not developed. But that's just my two cents.