If this is the worst M Night can do...he's a good director.

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2008)

I have always been a fan of M Night Shymalan and have always taken some ridicule for it after The Village and Lady in the Water, which I personally enjoyed. I already took criticism for The Happening. And yes, I will admit, it was M Night's worst film yet...but that dosen't make it bad.
M Night's latest effort stars Mark Whalberg as a Philadelphia science teacher. Once again, M Night casts a great lead role as Whalberg follows in the steps of Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix and Paul Giamatti. Whalberg made this film interesting and fun. Shymalan tries to join in on the fun with his plot which features people in the Northeast killing themselves in gruesome ways. One of the reasons this is not Shymalan's best work is that here he tries to frighten us by showing these depictions of death. However, sometimes they just come off silly. For example, one man starts a lawn mower and intentionally allows it to run over him. In addition, one of the things that made M Night's other films successful was his quirky characters, like Abigail Breslin in Signs, when she portrayed Gibson's daughter who had a fear of tap water. Shymalan tries this tactic again in The Happening, but the characters, such as an old lady separated from the rest of society, come off even sillier.
The Happening does redeem itself with its "monster". When the carnage first occurs, the initial blame is attributed to terrorists. Later, it is thought that plants have been communicating with each other. Fed up with our treatment, the plants release toxins inside of them, causing humanity to fall one by one. Shymalan passes this test with flying colors. It's almost like he presents us an interesting version of An Inconvenient Truth. Also, Shymalan asks us the question, "How do you fight and flee from something...when you don't know what it is? It is, indeed, Shymalan's worst effort yet. But when he releases his next film...it's gonna be one heck of a redemption.