Good ideas executed poorly

Rating: 4/10 (30 October 2011)

First of all, I understand this was supposed to be a B-movie homage. I get the underlying messages of the importance of love and recapturing the magic, protecting the environment or it will wipe us out, and the nature of relationships. The concepts behind the plot are well thought out and thought provoking as well. I love "The Happening" on a conceptual level. It's one of those movies that make you think long after the credits have rolled. However, good concepts don't always translate to good film.
M. Night Shyamalan has some decent credits under his belt. "The Sixth Sense" was a fun ghost story with terrific acting. "Unbreakable" was an interesting take on the superhero genre and again had terrific acting. "The Village" was a wonderful and thought-provoking movie that was underrated and misinterpreted. I think the first film I noticed M. Night Shyamalan may have been slipping was "Signs". While "Signs" had an awesome atmosphere and well-acted scenes, it's logical fallacies were too much for me to take (Really? Aliens are allergic to water? How did they enter our atmosphere without dying immediately seeing as how it is largely composed of H2O? The aliens sure do seem rather dumb for an interplanetary species, and their attack seems extremely ineffective for such an advanced species....among other blatantly obvious logical fallacies). But I figured okay maybe Sci-fi just isn't his strong suit. Then I watched "Lady in the Water". It had good acting but the script was seriously bad and it was almost comedic conceptually.
On to "The Happening". Like I previously mentioned, this one is definitely a thinking person's film. It's good for a conversation. Unfortunately the conversation might devolve into how bad the movie is. Mark Whalberg mentioned some of the strange ways M. Night Shyamalan attempted to pull good performances from his cast. Apparently this didn't work at all. The acting is so melodramatic and unrealistic, it really takes you out of the intended atmosphere. It doesn't help that the script is poorly written and invokes these melodramatic performances. Continuous and ridiculous close-ups really detract from any tension Shyamalan attempts to build. One scene in particular when Whalberg is yelling at his group "Why won't someone just let me think for a second?!" could be one of the worst scenes I've ever seen....except for maybe the following scene which concludes with "Keep ahead of the wind!" Horrid writing and poor choices of camera-work bring this film down a lot.
The opening scene of "The Happening" had real promise. I was horrified and intrigued at what could happen next in M. Night Shyamalan's first R rated feature. The first 20 minutes or so is a real treat to watch. Unfortunately it all take a steady slide down the hill and eventually falls from the cliff. With "Signs", "Lady in the Water", "The Happening", and "The Last Airbender", M. Night Shyamalan has officially made more mediocre to poor movies than he has good ones. I no longer expect anything from him. "The Happening" has some signs of a great film. It has good concepts and a solid introduction. However, it's just not there.
4.5/10