Boring to the extreme

Rating: Null/10 (26 December 2013)

So we have a premise where a mysterious disease is spreading throughout the world and we start to follow a group of survivors as they try to save themselves from the spreading destruction. Fair enough, it's another disaster movie with close calls, intense escape situations and general panic and mania amongst mankind. I've seen some good example of this and I'm open to seeing another one.
Unfortunately M. Night Shyamalan has no idea how to direct a film such as this one. The start of the film actually isn't that bad and some of the imagery of people losing their minds is actually very effective and creepy, as it should be. But then the film focuses exclusive on Mark Wahlberg and his group of survivors and it becomes so unbelievably dull to watch. All the tension bleeds out of the movie while we're forced to watch his monotone delivery of lines while he strays between his two basic expression, neither of which isn't that emotive or expressive. And I'm not saying that I Wahlberh can't be entertaining. He's decent enough when he's in an action film or something that requires him to actually do something. But in a movie where the actual threat isn't that visible and most of the film's quality has to come from the actors and their ability to convey the feel of danger, he's not your guy. And unfortunately none of the other actors are good enough to pick up the slack.
And then there are the sins of Shyamalan. He spends far too much time following these people as they flee aimlessly from one place to another. The threat itself is poorly established, makes no sense and is kind of silly when you stop to think about it. The problem is that this film takes itself far too seriously. Had it even hinted at the possibility that it had been made with some tongue in cheek, it would have been far more tolerable to watch. It's no surprise that this film has been parodied and mocked to the death.
Long story short, this is a bad film. It has no direction, no goals, no aim. It's a poor man's attempt to film a horror film without understanding horror at all. The sooner we forget its existence the better.