MOVIE REVIEW: THE HAPPENING

06/11/08

SYNOPSIS: "Science will come up with some reason to put in the books, but in the end it'll be just a theory. We will fail to acknowledge that there are forces at work beyond our understanding."
-- from THE HAPPENING

From director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) comes a lightning-paced, heart-pounding paranoid thriller about a family on the run from an inexplicable and unstoppable event that threatens not only humankind . . . but the most basic human instinct of them all: survival.

REVIEW: After the movie, at first I was speechless, then all I could repeat to myself over and over and over again was how bad I felt for Shyamalan. It wasn’t too long ago that he was on top of the world after mesmerizing it with his masterpieces, Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs. His directing skills, story telling abilities, and overall cinematic vision were a breath of fresh air for moviegoers. Sixth Sense holds my personal record for seeing a movie in the theaters at 4. This is not by choice but by chance because every time I went to the movies with a different friend during that period of time, they each wanted to see Sixth Sense. Can I tell you that even on the 4th viewing, knowing exactly what was going to happen, I was still jumping in my seat during the scary moments. That is Shyamalan skill. In Signs, one of my personal favorites of all time, the way each little detail is wrapped up in smooth, meaningful closure is Shyamalan skill. It is one of the best movie endings I have ever seen. Underrated Unbreakable was a fantastic telling of a modern superhero story in Shyamalan style. It was excellent. But then things started to get a little off. In The Village and Lady in the Water, the magic, mystery, and nail-biting cinematography are all still there but the stories were not as sharp. This was even more evident with their humble performance at the box office. Being the Shyamalan fan that I am, I was completely rooting for him to make a dramatic comeback with this production. The previews were enticing and it was his first rated R picture so I had high hopes. Maybe that’s why I was so disappointed. The movie was not exactly bad, but it was not what I was hoping for. But heck, Shyamalan said it himself. "I wanted it to be a fantastic fun B movie," Shyamalan told Reuters in a recent interview. "The No. 1 thing is I want people to say: 'That was a really fun B movie.'" Are you kidding me? After what he has established for himself he’s shooting for a B movie? I don’t get it. Come on M., you know you can do better than that.

So let’s see, where do we begin? The character interaction was cheesy and lame, and each character’s development was insufficient. M. Night usually does a great job with getting the viewer attached to the characters but not in this one. The cast initially sounded pretty decent but the performances were average at best. They seemed to be reciting lines and forcing their emotions . . . they were just not very convincing at all. Mark Wahlberg was not very believable in the lead role of Elliot Moore, a science teacher. Mark Wahlberg a science teacher? Huh? Zooey Deschanel played Alma Moore, Elliot’s wife, and she just did not bring her “A” game. The better performance of the three bigger names in the cast was delivered by John Leguizamo as Julian, a math teacher and Elliot’s friend and co-worker, and yet he had the smallest role of the three. The script was weak and unmoving and the storyline was too simple. As always, the cinematography was one of the better aspects of this film but compared to other Shyamalan works it does not match his standards. Granted, a bulk of the movie is filmed in a daytime outdoor setting so that doesn’t help. There are hints of Shyamalan magic throughout this movie, but overall it just does not feel like a Shyamalan product. What is prevalent is the pro-environment message. It almost seems like an Al Gore sponsored motion picture. If a B movie is what M. Night wanted, then yeah, that’s what he got and it’s pretty good. But scoring it against the reputation of Shyamalan movies, it falls short. I am willing to let this one slide if he brings a real blockbuster next time.

Movie Review By Cine Marcos
cinemarcos@smartcine.com

People Review The Happening

Astro

I think Shymalan aimed for a bigger message other than the evironmental one which was incredibly evident. The one I spotted during this film was hidden within each character. The diolouge was idiotic, let's put it at that. The women with the gas masks were an eyesore. The solider trying to lead the people was unlike the typical movie solider, brave and knowledgable, he was dumb and nervous, searching for information that someone would tell him to do. My point is that M. NIght was targeting the conservative party. He was making fun of the old and paronoid, the soliders, the rednecks (the ones that shot the children and the
ones that were loading up in their garage).
He was also making fun of the liberals. The stereotypical know it alls, M. Night put them in a situation of distress. M. Night was just showing the stereotypes of all people. However, this was still a bad movie because I don't think that
this point was evident. The film wasn't advertised as a joke, a mesaage,
a parody. Nothing. It was supposed to be a thriller and it wasn't.
It was simply a joke. A joke of a movie and a joke towards the people.