I think he irritated a lot of people with some of his plot twists, not to mention the fact that some of his best work is routinely ruined by massively ridiculous moments other than the plot twists. Even "Signs" which had mixed, but general positive reviews, featured this ridiculous bit with one of these horrible alien invaders being defeated in the climactic momenet by a hick with a baseball bat... despite having somehow been a global threat.
The plot twist to "The Village" actually annoyed a lot of people and was kind of stupid and was the movie that seemed to start to really turn people on him.
I think the bit that has lead to the degree of hatred was "The Lady In The Water" which wasn't quite as bad as many people make it out to be, but is noteworthy for the fact that at the same time he was under a lot of fire and heavy criticism he both cast himself in the role of "the Chosen One" the ultimate writer to end all writers who will like usher in glory for the entire world or whatever... while at the same time feeding the quintessential critic to a slavering monster. The timing of the whole thing had a lot of people going "Lol, what?".
Truthfully I think a lot of it has to do with him personally, it's not just that he's had a few bad (or very disappointing movies) it's the fact that he's been incredibly arrogant about it. He's one of those people who releases something that is dumb, and then seems to try and argue that we, the audience, and the various critics are simply too stupid to get his obvious genius.... that whole "Lady In The Water" thing was what seemed to throw it from annoyance into overdrive.
If I was M. Night, I'd develop a pseudonym like Steven King did, albiet for other reasons. I think the problem is honestly association with him, and his attitude. He does have a lot of potential and talent despite everything, which is why he's given all these chances. Instead of promoting movies with his name on them, they should have him ghost write for a while and if he has a couple of blockbusters again then "out" him from having used those name, with a few decent PR handlers to prevent his ego from turning people on him again.
Oh yes, and frankly, I think the people who are approving his scripts should look carefully at some of his twists. He can do good ones, however if it's "Nature is removing humanity as a threat, through the use of killer tree pollen" or whatever, chances are he should be told to work on that part of things. In my case it's not that I had any trouble understanding the premise of "The Happening" or why it was going on, and why the plants were reacing that way, it was simply that the central idea/reveal was stupid, and no matter the reason scenes of wind blowing through trees or fields just doesn't do it for me as a horror movie bad guy on it's own.
