Disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (16 June 2008)

First, I want to make my history with M. Night and his films very clear: The Sixth Sense: 9/10 (fantastic film, Shyamalan's best in my opinion) Unbreakable: 8.5/10 (great performances by Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson, another Shyamalan hit) Signs: 7.5/10 (intense film, thriller throughout, strong suspense towards the end, but lacked some creative elements) The Village: 7/10 (mediocre at best, not very thrilling, suspense is slow moving and doesn't culminate well) Lady In The Water: 5/10 (just a poor film, I enjoy Shyamalan and his work so I gave him a lot of slack on this movie, but it was a pure disappointment and wasn't even entertaining to watch)
Now, let's move on to the reason I am here: The Happening (4/10). Clearly, Shyamalan's biggest disappointment thus far in his career. It was simply a bad movie. Some of the most entertaining (mostly because they were laughable) parts were people committing suicide in the most gruesome yet comedic ways. I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers, but some parts in the movie were so pathetically done and so unrealistic that it shed a shameful light on the entire film. I made the mistake of coming into this movie with high expectations, because the movie had a good premise, and I thought it was M. Night's time to shine again, after his stumbles with Lady in the Water and The Village. Also, I expected a performance out of Mark Wahlberg that I didn't exactly get. Some of the dialogue that his character was forced to say took him out of his element and made him look childish while acting. Mark is a great actor so it was a let down to see him be involved with such an awful film. His performance was the best that he could have done, given the feeble script and odd nature of his character. All in all, the film was casted well but not performed well, and the premise for the movie had some potential but wasn't executed. A huge disappointment from Shyamalan. Hopefully my ratings of his movies won't climb slowly downhill as they are appearing to now.
I will warn you once, don't see this film, and if you do treat it as a comedy.