Post by rrw on Oct 14, 2008 15:13:07 GMT -5
Beware: Contains spoilers.
Okay, I admit it. When it comes to films by M. Night Shyamalan… I’m the biggest sucker in the world! I see a trailer for a movie of his and I just get so excited, “This looks really awesome!” And I go to see it or buy it on DVD and—with the exception of The Village—I’m always disappointed. I kick myself afterwards for spending the eight bucks to see it in the theatre OR plopping down the twenty-odd dollars to buy it on DVD! What’s wrong with me? I’m crazy! I just can’t help myself. And that’s the way it was with The Happening. Man, the trailer looked really good! But like most of his movies The Happening didn’t live up to the hype. Yes, the idea was very sound and there were some frightening scenes. But overall the structure and dialogue really sunk it.
The basic idea works: For some unknown reason people all over America are going zombie-eyed and committing suicide. No one knows why… they just do it! Could it be some kind of terrorist attack? Did a nuclear power plant accident poison the water, made everybody go insane to the point that they kill themselves…? Or was it something even more diabolical? I got it! These modern Americans watched way too many episodes of Deal or no Deal! The main idea of The Happening is that you don’t know why people are killing themselves… it just “happens.” To me, that’s frightening and it’s very much the way I see my fellow citizens; they can be extremely and murderously… unpredictable.
The suicide scenes in this movie are very disturbing: A group of construction workers start taking headers of six storey buildings… Thud, thud, thud! Some gardeners hang themselves by their gardening hoses from huge oak trees; a woman on a park bench in Central Park stabs herself in the neck with a knitting needle! One of the most unnerving scenes involves the NYC cop who goes “zombie” and shoots himself in the head; the cop and the gun fall to the ground. You see a pair of legs walk over, a hand picks up the gun, “Pop!” another dead body hits the street. But the scene that got to me the most was the tourist at a local zoo who walks into the lion’s paddock and offers himself up as an afternoon snack. Man! That… was… NASTY!
So, if the idea was good and the “kill” scenes were rather disturbing… where does this movie go wrong? Where it always goes wrong with M’s movies: it’s in the structure and writing of his scripts. WAY too early in The Happening we find out the cause of the mass suicides. Is it terrorist, a nuclear plant accident? No… it’s Mother Nature. Yep! She’s finally had enough of us human beings messing up the Earth so she sends a deadly toxin out via the trees to make us all go crazy and… well, die! Yes, we’ve had the “Mother Nature’s Revenge” plot before, but never has this particular plot point seemed so misused. The movie is called The Happening. Why not just leave it at that? We don’t need to know why! Heck that’s the way Hitchcock handled his classic, The Birds. The birds get together and attack humans… enough said. But as usual M feels he’s got to “make sense” out of everything. The problem is the sense he makes of it… is just silly. And the very stylistic dialogue adds to this sense of silliness. Yes, M tries to create a mood with his dialogue, but it is so unlike the way people talk that you just gotta laugh at it.
So there you have it. The Happening just ain’t happening for me due primarily to bad writing. Maybe M will learn how to write convincing dialogue, and develop a structure for his movies that doesn’t leave us wanting… less. I hope he does cause I’m tired of paying out all that money just to be disappointed.
The Happening, Ain’t Happening!
Okay, I admit it. When it comes to films by M. Night Shyamalan… I’m the biggest sucker in the world! I see a trailer for a movie of his and I just get so excited, “This looks really awesome!” And I go to see it or buy it on DVD and—with the exception of The Village—I’m always disappointed. I kick myself afterwards for spending the eight bucks to see it in the theatre OR plopping down the twenty-odd dollars to buy it on DVD! What’s wrong with me? I’m crazy! I just can’t help myself. And that’s the way it was with The Happening. Man, the trailer looked really good! But like most of his movies The Happening didn’t live up to the hype. Yes, the idea was very sound and there were some frightening scenes. But overall the structure and dialogue really sunk it.
The basic idea works: For some unknown reason people all over America are going zombie-eyed and committing suicide. No one knows why… they just do it! Could it be some kind of terrorist attack? Did a nuclear power plant accident poison the water, made everybody go insane to the point that they kill themselves…? Or was it something even more diabolical? I got it! These modern Americans watched way too many episodes of Deal or no Deal! The main idea of The Happening is that you don’t know why people are killing themselves… it just “happens.” To me, that’s frightening and it’s very much the way I see my fellow citizens; they can be extremely and murderously… unpredictable.
The suicide scenes in this movie are very disturbing: A group of construction workers start taking headers of six storey buildings… Thud, thud, thud! Some gardeners hang themselves by their gardening hoses from huge oak trees; a woman on a park bench in Central Park stabs herself in the neck with a knitting needle! One of the most unnerving scenes involves the NYC cop who goes “zombie” and shoots himself in the head; the cop and the gun fall to the ground. You see a pair of legs walk over, a hand picks up the gun, “Pop!” another dead body hits the street. But the scene that got to me the most was the tourist at a local zoo who walks into the lion’s paddock and offers himself up as an afternoon snack. Man! That… was… NASTY!
So, if the idea was good and the “kill” scenes were rather disturbing… where does this movie go wrong? Where it always goes wrong with M’s movies: it’s in the structure and writing of his scripts. WAY too early in The Happening we find out the cause of the mass suicides. Is it terrorist, a nuclear plant accident? No… it’s Mother Nature. Yep! She’s finally had enough of us human beings messing up the Earth so she sends a deadly toxin out via the trees to make us all go crazy and… well, die! Yes, we’ve had the “Mother Nature’s Revenge” plot before, but never has this particular plot point seemed so misused. The movie is called The Happening. Why not just leave it at that? We don’t need to know why! Heck that’s the way Hitchcock handled his classic, The Birds. The birds get together and attack humans… enough said. But as usual M feels he’s got to “make sense” out of everything. The problem is the sense he makes of it… is just silly. And the very stylistic dialogue adds to this sense of silliness. Yes, M tries to create a mood with his dialogue, but it is so unlike the way people talk that you just gotta laugh at it.
So there you have it. The Happening just ain’t happening for me due primarily to bad writing. Maybe M will learn how to write convincing dialogue, and develop a structure for his movies that doesn’t leave us wanting… less. I hope he does cause I’m tired of paying out all that money just to be disappointed.
and 
all
time for me 
echoes, hope you all are doing well 
