Review: The Happening (2008)

The Happening

IMDB rate: 5,1

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic 

I remember seeing this movie a few years ago, and I remember that I thought this was a reasonable movie. Sure it's a strange concept, but I liked it somehow. Yesterday I decided to watch the movie again, and I'm really wondering why I thought this was a reasonable movie back then?!

Seriously, the concept is cool, but that's about it I guess.

I usually enjoy movies made by M. Night Shyamalan. Movies like the Sixth Sense and The Village were certainly good movies. But seeing this movie.. what a waste of money. M. Night Shyamalan is well known for his plot-twists, and while I kept waiting and waiting, there never came a plot twist. Maybe that a nice plot twist could have saved this movie, but unfortunately there wasn't any. 

Elliot Moore is a high school science teacher who quizzes his class one day about an article in the New York Times. It's about the sudden, mysterious disappearance of bees. Yet again nature is doing something inexplicable, and whatever science has to say about it will be, in the end, only a theory. Scientists will bring out more theories, but not explanations, when a more urgent dilemma hits the planet. It begins in Central Park. Suddenly and inexplicably, the behavior of everyone in the park changes in a most bizarre and horrible way. Soon, the strange behavior spreads throughout the city and beyond. Elliot, his wife Alma and Jess, the young daughter of a fried, will only have theories to guide them where to run and where to hide. But theories may now be enough.

Like I already mentioned, the concept of this movie is good. It could have been a very interesting movie. However, some thing are very irritating. For example, the acting. 

The main characters are played by Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel. I've always enjoyed them in others movie and I think they are very good actors. I loved Mark Wahlberg in The Fighter and Four brothers. The same is with Zooey Deschanel, she was very good in Almost Famous and 500 Days of Summer. But, in this movie... well, the acting was terrible. There was absolutely no chemistry between the two of them, and I know that was the point in the beginning of the movie, but in the end, it was not the point of their relationship, because they were supposed to be close again. 

Other characters were also played by very annoying actors, like Mrs. Jones (played by Betty Buckley), why was she suddenly so angry? And why, did she play that so terrible? It seemed like she was playing in a Broadway musical (surprisingly, she did play in Broadway musicals), because it was so overdone. I've seen a small part of the extra features on the disc, and according to the entire cast, the part with Mrs. Jones was supposed to feel like we were watching an entirely new movie. I only felt like I watched the same movie that got instantly worse. 

The dialogues of this movie were also terrible, they said such stupid things, that had absolutely nothing to do with was happening at the moment. Some people come walking into this movie, say some weird unbelievable shit, and suddenly 'disappear' again. 

When you finally find out why everything is happening the movie only gets worse, because nothing makes sense anymore. There were so many things that did not fit with what was supposed to be the reason behind all of it.

There were also many useless things in this movie. For example, they constantly bring up the mood ring, and you start thinking, maybe it has a special purpose for the ending! Well, it didn't. At least, nobody explained it. I searched for it on the internet and what they supposed to tell with the mood ring, is that the ring never gives the color of being afraid, so the nature doesn't feel threatened by them. First of all, if everybody starts doing this, you don't get scared? Not even the little girl? And second, nobody ever tells what color the ring was supposed to be when being afraid...

Another useless moment was Alma's stalker, Joey. What purpose did he give the movie by calling Alma all the time. 

And, my favorite moment, the two rooms far away from each other, but where you still can hear each other just like you're sitting next to each other. What was it's use? Sure, it's a nice attribute for the movie, but why was it brought up like it was something important, when it eventually didn't have any use at all.

I absolutely can't recommend this movie. The acting was terrible, the dialogues were laughable, the music was terrible and gave absolutely not any more value to this movie. The concept and the storyline is acceptable, but it was put in the whole wrong context, with the wrong people and by the wrong people. It's not even somehow a horror movie to be honest.

My personal rate: 4/10