The Happening

For me, It appears that M. Night. Shyamalan is the most under appreciated director of our time. He has given us an incredible "comic book" film starring Bruce Willis and the dastardly devil Samuel L. Jackson titled Unbreakable. He has given us a film that has managed to truly shock and deeply terrify; Signs, and the original massive twist ending that lies within The Sixth Sense. After a recent slump in directing, doesn't it seem like the perfect time for a comeback?

Truth is, you're wrong. We're wrong. The Happening fails as a serious film all together. Shyamalan has managed to film horrific Playstation 2 product placements with horrible jokes scattered throughout a mess of film that only attempts providing "Hitchcockian" thrills and jolts. The scene which foreshadowed the lack of seriousness is in which Wahlberg tries to make peace with a plastic Plant. Such antiquities such as comedy never had such a serious backlash.

All right, so you've seen the trailers and experienced the "spoiler trauma" Due to the early script title, The Green Effect, there should be no doubt what the film's enemy is. Right now, this might be considered a spoiler, but it really isn't. Plant's are the baddies. They react to human stimulants which cause them to breathe a toxin out that forces us to commit suicide. This whole process has it's own flaws and which brings the question of "How do you create a suicidal being out of someone that has no comprehension of death? AKA a child"

This seems to be a plot hole which is unexplained. We've all seen Wahlberg in The Departed. An amazing performance, if I do say so myself. Wahlberg has shown the ability to act and Zooey Deschanel has proven her beauty. Once again, Hollywood betrays us leaving Wahlberg as bad of an actor as Keanu Reeves gets credit for and leaving Deschanel ugly as all hell and accented her age.

Near the end of the film, It switches gears just as 28 Days Later did. It turns face presenting a cruel side depicting rural Americans exploiting much hatred for city folk. This leads to a scene including the murder of children, one being of African descent which only leads to laughter. This laughter of course is sparked by the common theory of the "Black man" always dying first. An old woman plays the creepy card for half of the film, despite only being in it for little over 10 minutes. She later begins the disturbing cycle of suicide which creates the only real suspense in the film.

Now what really held the film together; what was the glue to the wood, was the acting performance of a certain Mr. John Leguizamo. After seeing most of his films, such as Spawn, Cronicas, The Pest, and King of the Jungle, I have come to a decision that Mr. Leguizamo has a special acting aura around him. See, I believe that in The Departed, Wahlberg was playing a familiar role. That would explain why he did so great. Leguizamo adapts to each role he plays, whether it be the ever-so-popular Hollywood retard, to the pedophile demon clown.

The instant I saw the red band trailer for this film, I had a certain idea that this film would be great. Boy, was I wrong. This film was bad, but it had elements of good. The suicide scenes were very bare bones. What you saw in the trailer is what you saw in the film. The camera still shys away from suicide. It seems Shyamalan has not matured much as a director. A scared director is a feeble director, incapable of creating tension in the act of suicide such as other directors have.

Much of the special effects were bad. The idea of a female Lioness being able to rip off a Mexican cleaner's arm off with as much velocity as presented onscreen is definitely fictitious. Now if he had coerced the Lioness, perhaps by taunting it, that would have been much more effective. Overall, Plot holes surround the film, snaring the storyline and dumbing it down. Not even God has this much forgiveness for A-List celebrities.

The Happening is like a jawbreaker of a Hollywood horror film; sometimes sweet, sometimes sour. This film has acting so atrocious, you cannot help but to laugh. I wouldn't be lying when I said that John Leguizamo's performance was by far the best throughout the film. A handful of decently filmed suicides doesn't make a film great. Percentages do make people feel better. I got a percentage for you. 73% of decent film viewers will realize the stupidity of this film and feel close to the same that I do.

P.S. Sacrebleu!

-mAQ