Dodgy B-pic continues the exponential decline of a once-great director

Rating: 2/10 (3 August 2011)

What if trees and bushes got together to plot the downfall of humankind? This is the premise of M Night Shyamalan's The Happening. Now, that is what some people might rightly call a "spoiler", and as such is not the sort of thing with which one should begin a review. But on the other hand, it could be argued that Shyamalan did a good enough job of spoiling his own film â€“ and the small matter of giving the game away here can't make it any worse. In fact, it may even make it better. At least a forewarned audience won't go into this film expecting another masterpiece along the lines of Sixth Sense, or even a decent-quality offering such as Unbreakable or Signs. No, the director has set the bar extremely high with his excellent earlier movies, and sadly he's routinely failed in his attempts to replicate his success: since Signs, his quality has dropped exponentially. In 2004's The Village, the cracks started to show. By 2006's Lady In The Water, it was clear he had begun to believe his previous hype. Critics universally panned the film, citing a lack of substance and an overall air of self-indulgence on the part of Shyamalan. Now we have The Happening. It's a B-movie with an A-list cast who're somehow acting at a Z-list level. Even the usually reliable Mark Wahlberg looks wholly uncomfortable here, but given the material he has to work with, that's hardly surprising. The final scenes are in no way, shape or form reminiscent of any of the director's previous trademark rug-pulling climaxes, and they seem to leave the way open for a sequel in a laughably obvious fashion. The Happening 2: The Reoccurence, anyone? 1/5