Shyamalan's stock drops further with a film that lacks tension, characters, good dialogue, drama, urgency or intelligence (SPOILERS)

Rating: Null/10 (13 July 2008)

It is a normal day in Central Park whenever people start talking strangely, moving awkwardly and inflicting fatal injury on themselves. With the media buzzing with talk of terrorist attacks, mass evacuation of the central New York area is organised. Among those fleeing is teacher Elliot Moore, along with his wife and a few others. The theory is that the municipal areas are the targets but somehow the attacks continue in smaller areas all along the East Coast. Seeking refuge further and further from population centres, Elliot tries to work out what is happening  if only to stay alive.
It didn't help that I watched this film shortly after watching the much better The Mist, which has the same sort of theme in regards an unknown and deadly disaster. Seeing something hitting the mark highlighted for me just how badly short of the mark this most recent M. Night Shyamalan film is. Of course it didn't really need another film to highlight the problems because they are all up there to be seen by all viewers. The opening scene drops us into the middle of a disaster starting out in New York where suddenly people are killing themselves, jumping off roofs and so on and it does grab you that something big is happening. Problem is, it has nowhere to go from there apart from delivering a clumsy and obvious environmental rant that makes little sense or impact. The film tries to make things personal and tense by focusing on a small group of characters but it doesn't work and the visual effect of the wind (like Kermode said  "who's making it blow?") just doesn't work and you never once feel genuine fear or urgency.
It doesn't help that the script is full of terrible dialogue and has no room or apparent need to have characters that the audience can care about. Many others have highlighted the terrible performances but in fairness with these lines and this direction, how could they have been much better? I say this as someone who likes Wahlberg in films that suit him but here he is clunky and unconvincing, totally hampered by the material handed to him. Deschanel spends most of the time gawking and offers nothing of interest while at least Leguizamo has the good fortune to get out early on  but even this is a surprisingly emotionless event. The fault for all of this must rest with Shyamalan himself because he has turned a mass disaster into a dull and lifeless affair; the good things he has done (Unbreakable and Sixth Sense) are slipping further back in time and if his plan is to fill his resume with stuff like this then I wonder how long he can continue to have the career he would like.
The Happening is a good idea but it falls down badly when it comes to the delivery. It lacks tension, urgency, character, drama, dialogue and intelligence and, one way or another all of these problems can fairly be laid at the door of Shyamalan. A roundly poor film despite the potential.