Mediocre Film that needed a better ending.

Rating: 3/10 (5 November 2008)

"The Happening" seemed to start off with an interesting and mysterious plot, but falls flat from act 1. Two things bothers me, the first is the $60 million budget, because there have been much better films made for less than $20 million, and second is an underlying theme that unexplained events, such as the bees dying off, are caused by "nature" as an acceptable answer.
In my opinion, the audience needs to have more questions answered in order to buy into the story. In "The Happening" the plot failed to ever provide an explanation for what was really happening. We were told that "nature" could be fighting back by plants giving off some new toxin, but how could plants control the wind? Which plants were producing the toxin and why did it spread? Why did the toxins start one day and stop the next? There were some guesses that the toxins sensed a group of people and attacked based on some size group, but then that idea was contradicted by the old woman getting poisoned while alone.
Without any established limits, it is hard to buy into the idea of "nature" attacking at random, and requiring the wind to blow up at the same time. Is this a paid propaganda project to plant the idea that the problems with use of genetically modified plant seeds, and spraying aluminum compounds into the air is an unexplainable act of "nature", I don't know? Could it be? Yes, it certainly lacks other value.
In the extra materials on the DVD, the director states that he needed a home run at the end, and unfortunately, it was a bunt. The ending added more questions, instead of wrapping things up.
It wasn't the worst movie I have seen, but not up to what I expected either, and basically middle of the road by today's standards. "Tremors" proves you can do a lot more with a much smaller budget, but see "Cloverfield" if you gave this movie a "1".