Not a disappointing film if you had no expectations like me and a lot of others.

Rating: 4/10 (15 June 2008)

M. Night Shyamalan makes films that are visually and emotionally interesting.But his films have progressively become less intellectual and increasingly more moronic."The Happening" is no different. This film has MANY blaring inconsistencies. One moment you will be genuinely shocked by what you are seeing, perhapses even touched. Then another you will be laughing at the weirdness of the people you meet, the goofy dialog, and the implausible situations that either aren't funny in the way that the filmmakers intended, or are funny unintentionally.
For instance:
-Why does the happening start in parks and stay only in the Northeast? This is never explained. At least well.

There is a close up of a chalkboard in Elliot Moor's classroom with a quote from Einstein. "If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live." This is true, but he never said this. Even "The Great Debaters" is guilty of this with the quoting of the erroneous Willy Lynch Speech hoax, but here it just does nothing but waste screen time. What a lack of integrity.

-Jillian gives Elliot the statistic that there is a 66.7 % chance his wife is still alive. Where did he come up with that? I don't care if he's a math teacher, its ludicrous; and to leave his child with Alma, a women he clearly doesn't trust, to go off and surely die which intern is depriving her of her father is inexcusable.
-When Elliot comes up with the idea that group size effects the pathogen in the air, we already know that this isn't necessarily the case. The first on screen death, a women stabbing herself in the neck with a hairpin, takes place in a group of two. Also this is stupid because it effects her and not here friend siting right next to her while it is effecting EVERYONE in the park at the same time. Elliot is in a group of 5 when he makes this conclusion. When Julian sub-comes to the happening, he is in a group of five also making the point moot.
-The characters at one point run from wind.
-Elliot latter talks to a plant in a room as if it were alive. He's a science teacher. He's alone. What were they thinking?
-Here is the biggest one of all. Why would a person who's cognitive functions such as memory and reasoning which are being eliminated have the intelligence to think of creative ways to kill themselves like :Untying a knot and pulling out a metal hair pin, getting into a lion cage, unholstering a pistol, slamming your head through a window, and especially turning on a lawnmower and knowing enough to lie down under it so it can kill you, aren't things I can imagine somebody doing who can even think a coherent thought, speak, and occasionally walking backwards for no reason then moving normally. Better yet, why not have the plants produce a gas that just flat out kills everyone. Why? Well, let me answer my own question. Because then it wouldn't be rated R and there would be no way to sell this film which I imagine originally was devoid of gore before the studios told M. Night the thing what boring so he needed blood to grab the audience. How cheap.I can clearly tell that this film's story could have easily done without most of these death scenes, including the opening.By the time you see a man lie down under a driving lawnmower this movie is stooping to slasher movie cliché. Considering Shyamalan professes this film to be some great statement on our effects on our planet and human nature, it surprised me.
I watched this film with a friend on opening day and I could tell the whole audience where treating the film as a B-movie such as I was. We would laugh at all the same inane dialog, the strange behavior of the wife, far-fetched plot, and bizarre character interactions near the end of the film. Also it was so predictable because we have seen so many films like it before. This is such an unoriginal film from the man who is known for making original films. I haven't read or herd this, but my friend told me M. Night Shyamalan was TRYING to make a B-movie with "The Happening". I told him that it made perfect sense when you think about it like that. This movie certainly is on the level of a Twilight Zone episode or some 50's end of the world movie. Now, do you think the movie going public WANTS TO SEE a B-movie? If that strategy is going to work, it would have to be something like "Grindhouse" or "Mars Attack" which makes fun of the genre its in. This film takes itself more seriously then it should have and thats its biggest failure, much like the movie "Hulk" which had a similar problem.
I give this movie 4 stars out of 10 because overall I was entertained and enjoyed picking this movie apart, kind of like a MST3K experience. Also, even though the Whole is less then the sum of its parts, it had its moments where It kind of worked for me and made me think about the things I was supposed to think about. If you are an M. Night Shyamalan fan you might like this, but I suspect his original fan base is dwindling so if you stuck with him after "Lady in the Water" why not this film? If you want to see a good movie with a similar theme, rent "The Mist" on DVD. I've read negative reviews for that said film, but I liked it and openly praise its tone and characters. Also keep in mind, I hate "The Ring" because I can't stand its inconsistencies. I can imagine somebody who liked that film likening this one.