The Happening

If The Happening were his first movie, would Shamalamadingdong have any fans? You know the answer. He's all gimmick at this point! Before it was gimmick with enough entertainment value and talent to just get by. This time is was not even close.
 
What Thunderhoof said.

I like the 6th Sense ok and Signs was meh for obvious reasons.

The Village was just one of the dumbest movies I have ever seen and is one of only two movies that I have wanted to walk out on. People "scared" to go out in the woods because of the creatures, and the creatures are humans making them stay in the village? That has excitement written all over it. I wont go anymore into how bad the plot was. The execution was just as bad and maybe worse. Bad acting and a worse script. Did they do anykind of research of how blind people function? My mom has worked for the School for the Blind almost all her life, and I told her NOT to watch this movie because I know how pissed she would get.

I could go on, but I don't really need to. I've made my point and don't want to get into it with any of the M. Night fans. But I will not be seeing any of his movies.
 
Wow people have opinions, who knew?!?
biggrin.gif

Heck even Night considers The Happening a B movie, but of course with his typical brashness he considers it the best B movie ever.
 
I think my fallacy can be tied to the fact that I absolutely loved the Twilight Zone. I'm sure one could nit-pick each and every one of those episodes to death. Generally, I don't go into movies such as Signs and The Village with overly cautious sense of realism and attention to detail.

I have much larger issues with just about every action movie that is put out by Hollywood today. One example would be just about every scene in either of the Mission Impossible movies. Some of that crap irks me to no end. That being said, I can see how someone with bigger taste in action movies can use the same defense in those that I used in my first paragraph.

My favorite Twilight Zone episode of all time was the one in which the main character had this addiction to reading. His wife and boss at the bank constantly bitched at him about it. At one point, he ends up going into one of the bank safes to read at which time there was a massive nuclear explosion. He survived. Everyone else died. He was distraught 'til he came across a library overflowing with unread books. He spends hours sifting through the books, carefully stacking them in the order in which he is going to read them. Fully content and in a personal paradise, he opens the first book. He then, accidentally breaks his glasses.

Without seeing this episode, one can already gauge the lack of realism in it. However, I love this kind of stuff.
 
Some of you pople honestly sound like you are firmly planted on the ground with a a redwood tree up your ***. Seriously, you people sound like you could go out to an art gallery and stare at a completely black 2' x 2' canvas and elucidate about the 17th century gothic metaphors of the seemingly endless plight of the common man, and the modern esoteric views of capitalism and how it revolves around the deteriorating nuclear family.

Honestly, it's just a freaking movie. Why people need to see so much plot and character development is beyond me. Directors leave a lot out in the open for people to ponder on their own, but some of you seem so dense that you are like a 3 year old and need everything spelled out for you.

This movie was about peoples reactions to a crisis, and some of you act like you expected Harrison Ford to hijack a plane with a toothpick and a q-tip and land it on a dingy in the middle of the atlantic in order to survive.

Mark W. did a great job of acting like a normal down to earth human being in an enormously stressful situation and he's getting slammed for it.

People are complainging that the ending had no twist like most of his other movies. Why does it have to have a twist? If you go into every movie looking for things like that, you'e already set yourself up for failure.

This movie should have opened some eyes to the problems humans are causing in nature. Why would he have a happy ending or a twist? He wanted to leave the movie exactly with what we are facing today - the problem is still there, and it's going to come back and bite us in the *** if we don't start doing something.

I personally loved this movie, I enjoy seeing how people are portrayed and how they act in a crisis situation. I thought this, like most of his works, was very original, enlightening, and very entertaining. The only thing that really bothered me about this movie was the woman next to us that decided to bring her 4 year old.

For the record, I still think Lady in the Water is one of his best movies, and everything I wrote in my first paragraph pertains to that too.

"I walked out of that movie thinking that was one of the best thriller movies I have seen in a while. I think that the majority of critics that rated this negatively wanted more visual effects and needed a scary image to focus their fear towards."

"Seriously, has anyone ever seen a Mark Wahlberg film? He's one of the best actors of our time and from the beginning of "The Happening" it was like he had been taking stupid pills. Does that add up to anyone? He was brilliant at acting like a bad actor in a "B" movie. I suggest everyone go back and watch this film for what it was, no preconceived notions about it being a serious drama, and laugh your head off. M. Night Shyamalan is notorious for taking risks and marching the beat of his own drum. I just wish more people could groove to the rythmn"

Some Rotten Tomatoes critics
 
For me, the problem with the Village was that it was too predictable. I knew what was happening about 15 minutes into the film. I agree there should be a suspension of disbelief when it comes to ghosts, superheroes, and even aliens. I can suspend my disbelief and say its possible for aliens to come to Earth for the sake of a movie. I have to draw the line somewhere though, and aliens that come to a watery planet yet are allergic to water is past that line. It was a weak plot device designed to give humans an advantage over a technologically superior race, and I realize we need something to keep the movie from ending with the aliens dominating. At least microbes, like in War of the Worlds, are more plausible. I don't want to spoil the plot for the Happening more than its already been spoiled. I'll just say I find it much less plausible than aliens that are allergic to water.

And it could be that I just want to take M. Night's movies seriously. Perhaps I should consider them as mindless entertainment like Godzilla or Cloverfield.
 
***spoilers****

the idea for the movie was unique and, i thought, really cool. losing the self preservation instinct was interesting and made for some really cool new ways to see people die on screen.

having said that, the movie was horrible and the dialogue was up there with the star wars prequels. embarrassing.

it was just one of those things that didn't translate into a movie very well, partly because there was no ending, partly because of bad and unecessary dialogue, and partly because the idea of the plants causing it was just plain stupid.
 
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