M. Night Shyamalan's newly released movie came out this weekend. I haven't gone to the theater for a very long time now, but my wife saw the advertisement on TV and really wanted to see it. We decided to take in an early show on Friday as to avoid the rush, and it paid off, being the first ones in the theater. The popcorn was good and the chairs were comfy. After that, things just went downhill. In a nearly empty theater, a couple guys decided that the seats next to us were the best available, rather than take any number of empty seats. From the incessant snorting, to the phone calls during the movie, the atmosphere wasn't anything to brag about. Unfortunately, neither was the movie...
The initial premise of a mysterious disease causing all that were affected to essentially commit suicide had some promise, but fell apart before the story could take hold. Some of the problems were that the actors didn't act as normal people do, going completely out of the way of what you would expect. For instance, when the actors discover an abandoned truck, with keys in the ignition, they didn't take said truck. Rather, they looked for a map and walked a couple miles.
These things were just nitpicking however. If you still wish to see this awful movie, then obviously don't click on the spoiler tags or you'll be reading the entire premise of the movie...
[spoiler] The movie fell apart in the middle when it changed from being a horror/suspense film like some of the previous offerings from Shyamalan into a political statement. This was first evident when the idea that plants were responsible for "The Happening." Afterwards, when the hypothesis was that human stimulation was causing the plants to react, it seemed like an absolute let down - Plants, scary? Sorry, not so much.
Shyamalan lost the audience when the twist at the end of the movie had an interview where the banter was trying to figure out if "The Happening" was something caused by the environment due to a human threat, or if it was government testing. Unfortunately, he left no doubt as to his opinions and let the talking head make a comment claiming that he would believe the government wasn't responsible if there was another incident in a different location. This was of course proven when a similar situation happened to end the movie, cementing the film as environmentalist while setting up Shyamalan for a sequel. [/spoiler]
If you want to see a green movie this weekend, you'd be better off seeing The Incredible Hulk.
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