Lady in the Water...Or Is She?

I distinctly recall hearing that this year's M. Night Shyamalan film, Lady in the Water, was a change of pace for the director. Well, this latest trailer doesn't seem anything like a change of pace to me. This seems like...pace.

Unlike a lot of people, I don't think the problem is that the movies are built around twist endings. You can have a good movie that's based around a twist ending. (Though it's probably best if people don't know there's going to be a twist ending going in, which makes his job a lot harder because people recognize his name). It's just that every film he's done, Signs-on, is built around a lame twist ending.

I know everyone who saw The Village is with me. Whoa, man...Whoa. Not only is the twist obvious and lame, but he actually tries to get away with revealing the twist, then reintroducing the mystery for a second time, as if we'd already forgotten that it's a twist! Come on, M.

Anyway, check out the trailer. And then you tell me. Are the dog-like monsters not real? Is the chick really a mermaid? Is this all a bedtime story Cleveland's reading his daughter? Is the entire film just an Indian guy pointing out at the audience and laughing while sitting on a big pile of money? (How awesome would that be? You'd probably have a significant drop in second-week box office, but still...face...)