Another poor showing

Rating: 4/10 (17 June 2008)

OK, so M. Night Shymalan is back with his follow up to the truly god-awful 'Lady In The Water' which is something of an achievement in itself as I'm surprised anyone would give him a penny after that effort, but they did so here we are.
The premise of the film is based around a sudden biological attack in eastern America which causes its infected to commit mass acts of suicide. Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel are the couple on the run from the ever widening affected area. An interesting idea, you would assume, especially given the fancy trailer which has been doing the rounds for the last month or so.
However, there is a problem with The Happening. It is terrible in many ways, and by terrible i mean truly terrible. The first problem I had was the acting, particularly Wahlberg, who it seems was challenging himself to use only one vocal tone throughout the film, which as soon as he opened his mouth in his opening scene sounded absolutely ridiculous.
My second issue with the film was that it was like being locked in a room and coughed on repeatedly by a Greenpeace activist. Shymalan uses the entire film to get across an idea that he is teaching all of us uneducated people the error of our ways, well I'm sorry but the man is simply making himself look like a fool.
Thirdly the film was just plain ridiculous throughout, I mean for example, for anyone who has seen or plans to see this film, when you leave the cinema, please ask yourself: Who was controlling the wind? And one final thought, in the trailer there is a sequence in central park where a woman is looking around her as the woman next to her and all of the people in the park around her become infected with the 'virus' I ask you all, how is it that she does not get 'infected' at the same time? It just WOULDN'T HAPPEN.
So in conclusion 'The Happening' is an interesting concept which has been terribly hampered by a poor script, terrible acting and poor execution.
Rob Yeomans