What "Happened" to Shyamalan?

Rating: 1/10 (16 June 2008)

The only thing I wondered after watching The Happening was what "happened" to M. Night Shyamalan. I'll come right out and say it: this movie was bad. It wasn't scary, suspenseful, thought-provoking, or anything else that it tried to be.
The most frustrating thing about the movie is M. Night Shyamalan, because the biggest fault in the movie was poor direction. He's already proved to the world that he can be an awesome director. It's not like the potential is there--it's already been proved! It is baffling, then, to see how this movie can be made by the very person who brought the Sixth Sense. Yes, I know, people claim that you can't compare this movie to his previous works. Yes, I can. That movie was really good. This movie was really bad.
Let's start with the acting. It wasn't there. The entire movie, I felt an emotional disconnect because I did not feel that the characters were actual people. They were just people staring off in the distance, delivering poorly written lines, not even showing a shred of panic, nervousness, or even more than a slight concern that people all around them are killing themselves! Mark Wahlberg is not the greatest actor, but he's not a bad actor. Obviously, he's not (insert Academy Award winning actor's name here) and he can't be compared to said person. I'm glad that he's moved on from his rap career as Marky Mark, but films like this aren't helping his future. His acting was corrugated cardboard. I felt like I was watching early William Shatner. The supporting cast was equally unconvincing. Dang it, show some emotion, the world is ending! The only good acting was found in John Leguizamo, and *SPOILER* he croaked 20 minutes into the movie!
The script was bogus. The dialog was unconvincing. People don't talk like that. The first few lines in the movie made me groan for being cheese whiz, but I dismissed it, only to be bombarded by more and more. It was just simply unbelievable.
The plot was flimsy. After the first scene in the movie, I was able to guess how the rest of the movie was going to unfold. Unfortunately, I was correct and had to spend the next two hours watching it unravel. *SPOILER*
As soon as they zoomed in on the trees in Central Park, I thought to myself, "Hmm, I bet this has something to do with the trees. Don't tell me Shyamalan's jumping on the bandwagon and preaching to us about how we need to be more eco-friendly..." What do you know! It turns out to be killer trees! Welp, I know this isn't politically correct, but why not just torch them to the ground? OR, why not just go to a place where there AREN'T trees, like the desert!? Drive to Arizona or New Mexico! The whole sub-plot with the protagonist's marriage problems is fluff. It's added to add depth to their characters, but it doesn't pull it off. There's no chemistry between Wahlberg and Deschanel.
Walking out of the movie theater, my sick and twisted mind thought, "Well, if the movie succeeded in one thing, it made me relate to the characters. Except with them, it was the TREES that made them want to kill themselves...I'm just left with an awful movie."
Shyamalan, there's still a little shred of hope that your next movie will be your redemption! You can do it! Just don't look for me in the movie theater--I'm still out of pocket from the money I wasted on this flop.