SPOILERs - for a bad movie....

Rating: 2/10 (18 June 2008)

Save your money and your time.
I am a faithful fan of M. Night Shyamalan. When everyone trashed any of his other movies, I defended them. His movies have always told such different stories; and he tells them and films them well. So, where did he go wrong here? Oh yes, he went terribly wrong.
***Spoiler to follow*** It seems he paid millions of dollars to tell his viewers that the abuse that the earth is experiencing from human existence is making her angry and she's not going to take it any longer. And apparently, you don't want to see her angry.
****And more spoilers**** For me to really enjoy a film, the characters have to be believable and act the way real people would act in certain situations. I'm talking about the porch scene. This scene had more holes in it than the police put in Bonnie and Clyde. If a little hole in a car will let in enough air to affect a carload of people, how did these people have only shutters on their windows keeping out the "whatever"? People are jumpy in times of violence. Why did the kid keep pounding on the door? Why did Mark Wahlburg not grab the kid away? Better yet -- if a one person in a group of people standing on porch gets blasted with a shotgun, the whole group will generally freak and hit the ground or run. They will not hang around like a bunch of dorks waiting to be picked off like quail.
***Yet more whiny spoilers*** Okay, now my last rant... Why was the old lady crazy? He made such a point of her madness, but no hint or explanation. Why put it in the movie if you're not going to exploit her insanity? And that thing in the bed, it reminded me of Norman's mother. Was there a dead child under that mask? Don't put something in a movie that's so distracting but adds nothing to the movie. My point, I was distracted about the whys and what fors of the old lady that it detracted from the rest of the movie.
***Summary without any spoilers what-so-ever*** You've been warned. Don't believe the good reviews, listen to me. Wait for the DVD if you feel you really have to watch it, because it's not a big screen movie anyway. And if you've read the other reviews that trash the acting, they weren't wrong. :-\