However, the film is a step in the right direction, with Shyamalan
finally delivering the goods again after dropping the ball a few times with pictures like The Happening (2008) and The Last
Airbender (2010).
Admittedly the bar has been greatly lowered when approaching any new film from M. Night Shyamalan, quondam wunderkind of cinema, whose SIXTH SENSE left us breathless with delight, and whose subsequent work left us more and more dismayed as the work deteriorated from the thoughtfully disturbing SIGNS, through the kitsch of THE VILLAGE, the silliness of THE HAPPENING, the self - indulgence of THE LADY IN THE WATER, THE LAST
AIRBENDER, which left us gasping in shocked disbelief at its grandiose ineptitude, and
finally the legendary disaster that was AFTER.EARTH, a film rumored to have been directed more by star Will Smith than by director - for - hire Shyamalan.
When I
finally did spot their lone manga material, it was a single giant Gate 7 poster that — along with a poster for their newly announced Avatar the Last
Airbender comic series — were placed facing inwards towards a garbage can against a support pillar.