So very close to a return to form for Shyamalan

Rating: 6/10 (23 February 2009)

I had such a good vibe going during this film. I couldn't work out why all the hate toward it. M. Night Shyamalan appeared to be back to his best so I began trying to work out which brilliant ending he was going to lay on us this time. There seemed to be little hints here and there that I figured would leave me saying after wards, "ofcourse, why didn't I see that coming?" Instead I was left feeling absolutely robbed at the brain power I had spent on this movie.
Shyamalan was back near his best in terms of building quiet suspense, even though we aren't entirely sure of what the disturbing occurrence we are in for is, which makes it all the better. The premise he's developed makes it easy for him to throw horrific images at us, but he does it with his own sense of style and creativity none the less. He's certainly nowhere near top form but it's definitely a step up from the awful Lady in the Water.
One of the reasons this movie fails in a lot of peoples eyes is that it lends itself to being over-analyzed. We know what Shyamalan is capable of in comparison to what he's providing us with lately and so we naturally see little faults in all aspects of the film much more clearly. A lot of the dialog is awkward and unnatural and some of the character decisions are questionable at best. The ending however must go down as the big one when we consider this is the man's specialty. The Sixth Sense, The Village and my personal favorite Unbreakable all had endings that left us both shook up and satisfied for days, even weeks. The Happening doesn't even come close to having either effect on us.
Not one to be proud of on Shyamalan's part and he's been let know this by his many razzie nominations. But it's not all bad and it's certainly not unwatchable. The man does have other traits beside delivering us with an incredible ending, despite what a few may think.