So...what was happening?

Rating: 1/10 (7 January 2009)

I went into this movie expecting a little action, suspense, and that weird M. Night Shyamalan twist. Not exactly what I saw. After watching Signs, which I found to be a quirky, fun, alien flick; The Sixth Sense, tragic, but touching; The Village, personally, it didn't interest me; and Lady in the Water, again, no personal interest, I've seen a digressive trend in script writing in the Shyamalan films. Each one becomes more strange and less enjoyable.
First off, in the opening scene the viewer is hit right away with a few disturbing suicides. Granted it does lay the ground for the rest of the movie, but it doesn't allow for any guessing at what's going to happen the rest of the film.
Second is the awful acting from all the characters. Don't get me wrong, I love the actors, but they were forced, painfully, into the script and their characters. Mark Wahlberg's character acted as if the world was coming to an end before he even knew the full extent of what the epidemic was. Not only that, he never got any more frantic or worried as the story developed. Zooey's character looked promising at first, with her nervous attempt to ignore her phone. But she never seems to wise up to the fact that her life is in danger, and life as she knows it now is going to change for the next couple days.
Okay, so the trees are taking their revenge. I can give the producer the benefit of the doubt that this will give the movie a sci-fi feel. Unfortunately too many elements of reality are left out. How come only some people at the site of attack are affected? If it's an airborne toxin, shouldn't everyone be inhaling relatively equal amounts? If the flora is so apt at communicating with one another, why don't they attack the entire globe? Quite frankly, it's never proved any where in the film that it was the trees, and the professor at the end who says that's what caused it comes off looking like a lunatic. Also, the toxin that is supposed to attack people's survival instinct isn't even what's presented in the movie. According to its portrayal, it appears to turn people into suicidal sociopaths
I understand some comments and review that state this was not meant to be a "good movie," and that it was meant to be "B"-rated. But let's face it Mr. Shyamalan has to understand that's not what the majority of his audience is looking for. For those of you who enjoy bizarre, anticlimactic movies that leave you wondering what the point was - this is the film to watch. But for the masses, many of us have learned appreciate what some call the 'unrealistic perfection' Hollywood has labored years to produce. It gives us a chance to escape from our own reality. Not that The Happening had even the slightest tinge of reality in it.