The Happening never happened

Rating: 1/10 (13 June 2008)

How is it that a man, who has so many fans, can so blatantly insult everyone's intelligence and hope to get away with it? I never made an attempt to become a fan of Shyamalan's and now I never will. The only thing I saw of his that I liked was Sixth Sense. It was fun and interesting even though I remember figuring it out before it was half over. I could explain why I failed to like The Village and Lady In the Water but I don't want to bore anyone, including myself. Although I can tell you why I was excited by Lady In the Water. Simply, the first trailer with Josh Groban singing beautifully and the look of a dark, wonderful fairy tale sucked me in only to lead me to a futile, fatal attraction.
For me, seeing The Happening was a weak moment and an effort to forgive.
I cannot blame poor acting because I think the actors all did as they were told. What some may blame on poor acting was instead, in my opinion, a matter of poor, deceitful directing, leading the performers into a belief that they were a part of a great film which would deliver with fantastic editing - and their shallow characters would fit into a grand plan of the great master's philosophy and plan. I feel sorry for all the performers whom I really do admire. It is because of one man's self servitude and shallow vision that many others may suffer. Hopefully I am wrong.
This is not a movie. I went to see a movie and all I got was this stupid philosophy lesson. I get my lessons from life Shammy and I get my kicks from movies. When you decide to get back into the entertainment business, you're going to have to fight real hard to get me into the theater.
The Sham-fan will get their fill but I will not understand why. But the movie fan will find that there is no artistic value to this sham of a flick. In my mind, the reason for this film was lost in the wind. This makes it easier to believe that he gives himself far too much credit for artistic value, which, in fact, in my opinion, has indeed been blown away by the winds which we all know affect us if we let them remove from reach the real reason why we are here.
1/10 if not 0/10