A MUST SEE FOR ALL GENERATIONS (or maybe not so for the really young kids for some violent images though)

Rating: 9/10 (19 June 2008)

Come to think of it, I have watched all M. Night's movies whether they were on theaters or after they were released on DVDs. It seems as though the director comes back on top every other films. First it was the sheer genius work of Sixth sense, and then the downer..., the "unbreakable" (what the heck was that, really!?). After that it was the good old, "Village," (I truly loved it). Then it was that intellectually insulting (as far as the ethnicity studies & anthropological aspects go) "lady in the water." And now this time, M. Night comes back with his game on a full throttle. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up for the HAPPENING.
It's a story about " the attack of the mother nature." Although it was a bit hard to read between the lines and some sequences time to time, the message the movie conveys just overwhelms you and makes you think about Human vs Nature relationship again and again.
Some reviewers argued that the acting was just so unnatural and unrealistic. But one must keep in mind that that was done all purposefully to give a unique look/feel to the movie. In its simplest term, acting wasn't the most important part of the film. Some people also criticized that script was just too poorly written. I say those who say so are not much of readers. The script was near perfectly knitted together and riddled with clues and signs so cleverly that makes an educated reader go, "wow." Let's face it though, yeah.... not so much Drama-Drama. But why? Because the movie really isn't about it, either.
We humans arrogantly think that we "own" the nature that surrounds us. And that's a flat out ignorance and gravely destructive misunderstanding. We humans are mere part of the nature that allows us humans to be who we are. The mother nature owns our destiny no matter how hard we try to overcome all the natural disasters that occur every year around the glob. No more unrestricted drillings of oil on land and ocean and exploitation of forestation by cutting down trees. And to top it all off, the issue of over-population is going out of control and makes the provisional conditions of food supplies all around the world worse and worse each year.
M. Night goes to the extreme and tells us a story of what if the mother nature says she's had enough and decides to preserve herself by getting rid of those who threaten her own existence here on earth. And that threat turns out to be us, Humans. This is s a powerful message and one should not ignore it as just a thing in a summer blockbuster movie.
I say the movie is for all generations because it is perhaps the biggest issue that we all face and everyone should take part in learning about it. I kinna regret that M. Night chose to go rated-R for this project for I would have hesitated to take my own children (if I had children that is) to go see it all together because of its graphic death scenes (This is why 1 minus 10 stars.) But I guess that was also well intended and absolutely needed in the directors mind.
In the movie, only adults die of this "neuto toxin" released by plants. And we see two kids die only in the hands of adults who shoot them with rifles to save their own fannies. Perhaps, this is why M. Night only wanted adults to come see his movies. To make us think about our actions and responsibilities we have for our children.