“Umbraree” is a Shyamalan movie! Throw away your preconceptions and believe in what you're seeing now! ※note! Contains spoilers.

*This article touches on the ending of the story, so we recommend watching the movie before reading it.

"Umbraree" synopsis

Pennsylvania, USA. A tragic train accident occurred in which 131 passengers and crew were killed. David, once a promising football player, was the sole survivor of the train accident. Moreover, he survived without sustaining a single scratch. David, who is wondering why he was the only one miraculously saved, receives a strange letter from someone calling himself Elijah...

Index

• The misfortune and misunderstanding of the second “Sixth Sense”
• “Episode 0” depicts the birth of an American comic book hero
• Shyamalan's biggest weapon that critics didn't understand
• Shyamalan's world combines thrills and laughter

The misfortune and misunderstanding of the second “Sixth Sense”

The movie ``Umbraree'' (2000) is a story about a man who survives a tragic train accident and tries to solve his doubts, ``Am I immortal?'' It is director M. Night Shyamalan's third feature film (fourth if you include independent productions), and is now often hailed as Shyamalan's best work.

In addition, ``Umbraree'' has two sequels, `` Split '' (17) and `` Mr. Glass '' (19), and is part of an epic saga, making it an important film in Shyamalan's filmography. I understand the gender. However, at the time of its release, the film received severe criticism and was widely misunderstood. So, using ``Umbraree'' as an example, I would like to examine the ``misconceptions'' that are common in Shyamalan's films.

"Mr. Glass" trailer

Shyamalan clearly saw ``Umbraree'' as ``a movie version of an American comic.'' In an interview with the author, he said, ``It was an attempt to reconstruct the worldview of American comics through realism.'' And this is not even a hidden theme of the work. At the beginning of the movie, a commentary on American comic book culture is presented like a preface, which is equivalent to Shyamalan declaring, ``Everyone! We're about to start making an American comic book movie!''

If Shyamalan made a mistake, it was that when ``Umbraree'' was released, ``American comic book movies'' were not yet a mainstream genre in Hollywood. And, with the premise that the audience understood American comic book culture, he took on the challenge of reconstructing the American comic genre with an original project that had no original work.

Of course, there were quite a few people in the audience who understood Shyamalan's intentions, even if they weren't avid American comic book fans. However, more than that, there were many viewers who were confused and unable to grasp the work ``Umbraree.'' The world still has a strong impression of Shyamalan's previous film, `` The Sixth Sense '' (2019), which made him a big hit, and the distribution company promoted it as ``a psychological thriller movie in the same vein as ``The Sixth Sense.'' It's hard to believe now, but at the time it was thought that the ``American comic'' element was too maniacal and would be a disadvantage in terms of business.

In fact, in the past, live-action adaptations of American comics, `` Superman '' (1978) and `` Batman '' (1989), were indeed big hits, but the series had already ended due to poor business performance. The film adaptation of Marvel Comics, " X-Men ," was released in the summer of 2000, prior to the US release of "Umbraree," and became a hit, leading to the huge success of director Sam Raimi's " Spider-Man " (2002). However, since this was before the trend of ``American comic book movies = hits'', it was natural for the advertising team to believe that the impact of ``The Sixth Sense'' would be far more useful.

In other words, ``Umbraree'' was a work that was inevitably misunderstood from the moment it was released to the world. Furthermore, the misunderstanding at the end of ``The Sixth Sense,'' which became a big hit, added to the misunderstanding. In fact, ``Donden Gaeshi'' (or sometimes, ``Donden Gaeshi'' without any return) has become Shyamalan's specialty, and ``Umbraree'' also has some surprising developments in store. However, because of this, the dramatic nature of ``The Sixth Sense'''s ``reconciliation after the rupture of parent and child'' has been neglected, so the American comic elements of ``Umbraree'' also seem to be a material for revenge. It happened.

In the end, ``Umbraree '' grossed $248 million worldwide on a production budget of $75 million, so it was by no means a commercial failure. However, his previous work, ``The Sixth Sense,'' sold too well. The film cost $40 million to Umbraree , and grossed more than $672 million worldwide in the United States alone, more than Unbreakable did. To the distributors, `` Umbraree'' was seen as a failure that fell short of expectations compared to ``The Sixth Sense.''

Shyamalan later complained, ``No work has ever been successful if it was given unfavorable publicity.'' In the end, it wasn't until the DVD release that ``Umbraree'' was truly recognized, and in 2011, Time magazine ranked it 4th in its list of ``Top Ten Superhero Movies.'' This can be said to be evidence that the evaluation of the work has changed significantly over time.

“Episode 0” depicts the birth of an American comic book hero