It's actually the best M. Night Shyamalan's movie so far

Rating: 8/10 (6 July 2008)

It's actually one M. Night Shyamalan's movie that has a relevant meaning. Unlike many of those who hated this movie, I'm actually not Mr Night's fan. I mildly enjoyed 6th sense but generally found all of his other movies pretentious and heavy handed, except this one. This is his only movie so far that doesn't have a twist ending, which is a good thing! This time, Mr. Night doesn't mind showing you the blood and gore, which really took me by surprise. The visual horror is a double edged sword. It can be funny to watch, which may take away some seriousness of the subject. It also takes away the subtlety. Once you see it happening in front of your eyes, you are somewhat desensitized.
Though there are no plot twist, I am still quite intrigued and involved through the whole time. I'm literally glued to the screen, anticipating and guessing what will happen next. The pacing is effective and dialogue are simple and down to earth. It makes you feel those characters are more real. Regardless if the characters are likable or not, you still care what's happening on the screen and how the story unfold.
Some people complain that the characters have no depth. Here's the thing about the movies that are depicting catastrophic event: because of the time span are usually limited to few hours or a few days in these type of movies, there's very little room for character development. Therefore, the director would usually tell a bigger story through the characters, not so much about the characters. I really don't care that much about any one individual in the story about extinction of human race. I'm more concerned about how story unfolds through character's eyes.
Some people also attempt to analyze and criticize the science behind the story. Well, here's what I'm going to say to that: unless you are a real biologist, don't bother trying to criticize the plot because you only come off sounding really stupid and ignorant. Nobody can yet explain some of the plant behaviors and we are only finding out more and more unexplainable things about plants recently.
It is definitely quite different from all of his previous movies, yet, you feel the similar tension build up. There are some flaws here and there, but generally speaking, it is a very entertaining experience without the pressure of pulling off some unbelievable plot twist. Therefore, I enjoyed it much much more than his other movies.
Another thing I really liked about this movie is that you can find humor in the most unexpected situation. The over the top gore and hysteria at certain moments really comes off rather comical. I'm not sure if they are intended or not, but they let you peer inside human psyche in a very bizarre way. I won't give out too much details in case you haven't seen the movie.
All in all, it's surprisingly good, engaging and entertaining. The character may not have witty dialogs or use fancy word play, but who really give a fly pig about fancy word play? If you want unrealistically pretentious fancy word play, go watch a sitcom, in which every single word uttered is carefully crafted to make you go: yeah, that's really smart and funny and inventive. People in real life don't talk like that.