An acceptable concept unable to make a story resulting in poor execution.

Rating: 2/10 (16 July 2010)

Two things I learned about film watching The Happening: 1) Just as it allows for an incredible creative result allowing a filmmaker to write, direct and produce their own film (Stanley Kubrick), it can also be a self indulgent disaster with nobody there for damage control and a reality check. 2) People have faith and want to see Shyamalan make another movie like The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable. They will keep giving him money, to the insane amount of $161m to date, hoping he will come back from the last string of disasters. After The Village, The Lady In The Water, this and The Last Airbender, which seems to be bombing, I think it may be tough.
To quickly cover the synopsis: People are suddenly killing themselves in droves. One minute fine, next gory suicide. The "happenings" start in NYC and begin to spread. We see the movie through our lead protagonist, Eliot (Wahlberg), a nice-guy science teacher having marriage difficulties with his wife Alma (Deschanel). They are trying to evacuate NYC and get away from the happenings which are spreading. Along the way we discover the cause of the happenings and watch the characters dynamics change as they are faced with life threatening events.
The setup and opening act is strong and intriguing, but falls apart shortly thereafter and the final act feels like the filmmaker had a good concept, but did not know how to make it a story.
The plot is simple and the comment is easy to grasp. An acceptable concept poorly executed. The film is wrecked by the atrocious and insulting script, with mistakes a seasoned filmmaker should not accept, and is further spat on by some of the worst acting and dialog ever released in a commercial movie backed by a decent budget and experienced team.
The dialog and acting is insulting to the audience and characters are unnatural, have no depth and talk the plot throughout the film. Wahlberg can be hit and miss and this is his worst by leagues.
The film is a disaster and may even be worse than The Daughter with Kev Costner, which is saying a lot and the only reason I am glad I have seen it was for the lessons learned in how not to make a film. This is the current benchmark for bad film making and unless you are interested in some aspect of film making, it is a waste of 91mins and will only insult and enrage any person with even the most basic level of intelligence.
2/10