Acting: D
Production Quality: B
Plot: D
Positive Elements: C
Negative Elements: B (Violent depictions of suicides)
GPA: 2.0
Comments: Here is my theory, M. Night Shyamalan, who made his name by surprising his audience with clever, final twists at the end of his films, is actually taking a meta-cinematic approach to making films. He is laying the groundwork by intentionally producing a spate of crummy films (The Village, Lady in the Water, and now, The Happening) and will soon cleverly surprise us all with another good film and a return to form. That is, if the powers that be continue to allow him to make films.
An additional theory is that he intentionally coaches his actors to give wooden, stilted performances for some reason that I have not yet discerned. I am sure it is for some stylistic purpose.
Still another theory is that Shyamalan is far less clever than his early work has led him to believe he is. Maybe his early work was a fluke. I hate that, because I really thought he had something at one time.
This was just a bad movie. Not worth watching once.
Agreed on all accounts. We were intensely disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI can find enough value in the stories of Lady in the Water (the broken doctor is actually the healer, and thus redeemed) and The Village (a great study of why fundamentalism or isolationism can never work).
But this -- WTF mates? Environmental sermonizing wrapped inside a slow-paced, uninteresting story?
Sad that Shyamalan has fallen this far.
Coart's comment: "He needs to hire a writer."
I just wanted to say it's funny to see Lori using "WTF".
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