The opening scene and (some of) the performances were about it...

Rating: 5/10 (13 June 2008)

What starts out strong sometimes burns out fast, and The Happening, a "psychological thriller" based on an unknown phenomenon leaving mass suicide in its wake, is no exception, as it fails to live up to the hype, or even it's writer/director's past achievements.
Certainly not M. Night Shyamalan's best, this film left me feeling cheated, and like I had been condescendingly preached to. It falls prey to many of the trendy plot vehicles utilized in a slew of modern thrillers - as my brother said while we were watching it, "terrorists are the new asteroids." I've seen worse movies to be sure, but this was extremely disappointing based on Shyamalan's previous body of work. Not to rehash what I'm certain a lot of other reviews say, but of course Sixth Sense and Unbreakable were awesome. I even liked the Village quite a bit. But everyone runs out of steam sometime and it seems Shyamalan has reached a point where the initial "surprise" we expect has evaporated, and we're left running on empty.
What starts as a great premise, one which hearkens back to the best of Hitchcock and The Twilight Zone, comes up short here in a thin, weak script, and a tragic loss of pace which turns what could be a genuinely spooky thriller into little more than a dark comedy. I'm sure my opinion is a little slanted, as I tend to laugh at a lot of horror movies, but there are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments here which are severely misplaced, to the point that they draw laughs away from the intentional jokes inserted in an unnecessary attempt to lighten the mood.
The performances were decent, with Ashlyn Sanchez (as the little girl, Jess) giving the best performance, par for the course now in Shyamalan's films. I disagree with some of what I've read in that I feel Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel gave decent performances. John Leguizamo was excellent as always, but the script left all three of these fine actors chewing scenery, as we are left to build tension ourselves in a failed attempt to create environmental and circumstantial dread.
Add to that a number of plot devices we can assume were introduced to build character involvement, none of which are followed through effectively, if at all, and the audience simply doesn't care about these people, preventing any horror or tension from building.
SPOILER: As can be expected, Shyamalan seems ready to depart from his "spooky buildup, then a mind-bending twist" formula, but this one, which simply ends right when one expects it may finally be getting good, could use a little twist, or at least a squeeze of lime. There is simply no flavor here, and the pacing initially whets your appetite for a main course that simply isn't coming.
My other, personal diatribe involved here is not so much against this film, but more so against the MPAA and the movie ratings industry itself. Believe you me, I LOVE the GORIEST, and MOST OFFENSIVE movies around, and am not easily, if at all, shocked. That said however, the whole "M. Night Shyamalan's first R rated film" angle that is being beaten to death in the marketing campaign for this film is a load of hooey. I have seen WAY gorier and more offensive stuff in PG-13 films, and if this is the same R rating as we get for both Pretty Woman AND the Saw franchise, then god help any confused parents trying to decide whether this is acceptable fare for their children. Take my word for it, it IS... unless you count those kids being bored to death. (Watch "This Film is Not Yet Rated" for a great explanation of the bizarre MPAA ratings system.)
Overall, I'll suggest that you wait for the DVD on this one, or even better, torrent a cam version. Even with that crappy quality, you won't miss anything.