Abysmal failure!

Rating: 1/10 (15 June 2008)

At the time I write this review "The Happening" has an average score of 6.2, how that is possible is beyond me! I have seen a few of M. Night Shyamalan's movies, I really liked "Sixth Sense" and thought "Unbreakable" was pretty good, but I have to say that "The Happening" is the worst film I have seen in a long time!
The story is paper thin and the basic premise of the film is absolutely ludicrous. Apparently Mr. Shyamalan thinks it is perfectly reasonable to expect several different species of plants to develop some sort of hivemind and "decide" to start producing and releasing completely identical neurotoxins simultaneously! And not only that, the plants can also sense the presence of humans and only release the toxin if they deem the number of humans to be high enough! Not to mention that it seems the trees are in control of the wind!
But besides the silly premise, is the movie any good? Well, sadly the answer is NO! The script is not good, on several occasions the lines feel stilted and unnatural, making it very hard for the actors to do a good job. It is very odd that Mr. Shyamalan wrote it with Mark Wahlberg in mind, since he feels miscast as "Elliot." Wahlberg has delivered very good performances earlier, but here it falls flat. I'm not happy about the casting of Zooey Deschanel either. To me, she always comes off as rather odd, which doesn't really work in this movie, in my opinion.
There are only feeble attempts at character building, which leaves the audience uncaring about the fate of the two main protagonists and the overly sappy ending is downright silly.
It is supposed to be a thriller, but I never felt any suspense and the only slightly scary thing in the film is the cranky old lady. Not a good thing, when the main story is about something that has the potential to wipe out the human race!
Some of the reviewers who have given "The Happening" a good review have more or less implied that if you don't like it, it's probably because you are not the kind of person who appreciate "thoughtful" films. I find this rather insulting! There is nothing thoughtful about this film. It is, IMO, a poor attempt at playing into the whole "doomsday" perspective that the media likes to portray regarding global warming and "eco-disaters." It would seem that Mr. Shyamalan started out on top of his game and has gone downhill ever since.
Easily the worst film I have seen in 2008.