Rate "The Happening" [spoilers]

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Went to see this yesterday afternoon. Personally I rather liked it; moreso than other Shyamalan films such as Lady in the Water or The Village. The two people I was with were quite unimpressed (but they also don't have the most reliable taste ).

Edit: I gave it a 7 myself. It's not like it was the best ever after all. But it was decent enough. Seemed to stoop just a little too readily to cheap surprise shocks and unnecessary gore. Not enough time spent getting viewers to care about the characters before placing them in danger. I'd rate "Lady in the Water" and "The Village" about the same on a 10 point scale but I think it's a little better film and would really give it 7.5. I try to score movies lower than my first impressions because people actually score movies notably higher on first impressions and then upon reflection realize they don't deserve it.

 

[Felon]

I think Shaymalan is really talented, and I think what his career needs more than anything else is to direct something he hasn't written so that audiences (and Hollywood producers) will stop expecting a Sixth-Sense shocker. He needs to adapt a license, which is why I'm pleased to hear that he'll be directing the Avatar film(s).

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I thought this was pretty awful, actually. The dialogue was incredibly stilted, IMO, and the performances were really sub-par. Marky Mark has done a couple of decent flicks lately (notably, The Departed), but he was channeling his earlier performances in this one- now I remember why I couldn't stand seeing him in such movies as, Planet of the Apes: The Awful Remake and The Big Hit (which was a fun romp that managed to not be completely dragged down by his acting). Even Zooey Deschanel seemed to phone this one in.

The plants angle was interesting, but fairly poorly developed.

I gave it a 4 out of 10, but I may be being generous today.

 

[Felon]

The plants angle was interesting, but fairly poorly developed.

I guess I'd have to see the movie, but I don't get how the plants angle could be the big twist. There's only so many ways for mass dementia to get spread, and if I was using House's socratic method, seems like some sort of spores or pollen or what have you would be somewhere on the whiteboard.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I guess I'd have to see the movie, but I don't get how the plants angle could be the big twist. There's only so many ways for mass dementia to get spread, and if I was using House's socratic method, some sort of spores or pollen or what have you seems like it would be somewhere on the whiteboard.

Quite you. With your logic and thoughts...we shall have none of that here!

 

[Zulithe]

It was awful. I can't believe this is the same director who gave us memorable films such as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. It seemed like a parody of one of his films, really. I'm of the opinion that his films have been slowly diminishing, but I didn't think it would reach this level of bad... I used to think he had some talent. Now, I wonder if he just got lucky the first few times.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I'm of the opinion that his films have been slowly diminishing, but I didn't think it would reach this level of bad... I used to think he had some talent. Now, I wonder if he just got lucky the first few times.

I'm pretty much in the same boat. Sixth Sense? Good movie. Unbreakable? Love it.

Everything else... not so much.

I found myself thinking while watching The Happening that someone should write a comedy called "How Shyamalan Got His Groove Back." (Fiction, of course, at least thus far.)

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I'm of the opinion that his films have been slowly diminishing, but I didn't think it would reach this level of bad... I used to think he had some talent. Now, I wonder if he just got lucky the first few times.

I agree, if The Village had actual MONSTERS! then... I would call it an exception, but... It didn't so, yeah I agree.

Mini-Rant: Who else found the shack with the suits in them, incredibly stupid. I mean, I am pretty sure sooner or later one of the kids would go inside and see the suits.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Mini-Rant: Who else found the shack with the suits in them, incredibly stupid. I mean, I am pretty sure sooner or later one of the kids would go inside and see the suits.

They did keep it locked IIRC, and the building otherwise was just an old "storage" building of no significance. I don't have a problem with accepting that kids would play around it and maybe even try to get in, but not question why it was locked when they couldn't. It would only become questionable when someone noticed that it was the ONLY locked building (or was it?) and that noone ever did go in it, avoid mentioning it, and studiously not discussing what was stored there.

Except for the founding adults everyone in the village were children who were too young to remember the outside world and had since been raised in a carefully controlled environment. They had no reason NOT to believe what they were told. They had no real reason to suspect that this otherwise ignored storage building held anything of interest.

IIRC, this building was also at the edge of the woods and the children had been given reason to fear the woods. It wasn't until the time period covered by the movie that "children", or more accurately the young adults, had become bold and brazen enough to test and challenge what they'd been told.

 

[Shayuri]

I found this movie, The Happening, to be an abysmal waste of my time.

The acting was at -best- campy, and far more often simply absent. Marky Mark isn't a bad actor, but was given horrible dreck to work with.

I find that one of the things I hate -most- about Shyamalan's latter movies is the inclusion of a "minor character who somehow manages to explain exactly what's going on, despite having no reason to know it."

It's hackneyed and incredibly annoying. Those words also describe the movie in just about every other way.

Right down to the ending...which...was obviously intended to be tense, but for me at least failed, due to heavy-handed foreshadowing and the Plot Exposition Broadcasting Network on TV.

I actually rank this as the worst of his that I've seen...though I haven't seen The Village or Lady in Water.

...when you're out-acted by a CGI Hulk...