The Happening

Told you I'd get it reviewed! But first, I have to come up with a system for grading said reviews. I was going to make something fancy involving marking schemes and rubrics, but I think I'll just give a movie a number and help you explain how I got there.

M. Night Shymalan's The Happening (thriller, horror, drama)
8.5 / 10

This movie got, and continues to get, a lot of flack from online movie reviews and the public in general. And I could not care less. I have been a fan of MNS's movies since I watched another of his unappreciated movies, The Village, at the drive-in. What the hell is wrong with The Happening?

Some reviews poo-poo the acting. Frankly, I think Mark Wahlberg did a half-decent job, considering that I have never seen him in a role that allowed me to take him seriously. I mean, come on! He's Marky Mark! Honestly, though, I thought he played the character well. I liked the character, and that's usually a good sign. John Leguizamo is an actor that reviewers loved to hate on, and again, I think he did alright. Maybe I'm a bit biased, since the first of his movies that I watched was Romeo + Juliet, and he was a total babe then. The man's been in every damn movie since the dawn of time, and he earns more money than you, so hush. Finally, there's almost nothing to say about Zooey Deschannel. She's always cute, but lacking in depth.

Story-wise, shut the hell up. I thought the plot was solid, and it sure had me interested from the beginning. I mean, when the action starts not even ten minutes in, you're never sure what you've gotten yourself in to. In this case, I got myself in to a movie that made a lot of sense, surprisingly enough.

Now, I'm going to talk a bit about the plot. If you know the basics of the movie, I won't be giving away any crucial information. However, I do reveal the cause of "the event" and if you would rather not know, skip the next paragraph.

Spoilers: The premise is simple: we pissed off Mother Nature. Our main character gives us enough knowledge to surmise the general plot when he mentions a nifty ability of the tobacco plant. Turns out, if the plant is being "attacked" by a certain species of catterpillar, the plant will release a chemical in to the air that tells nearby wasps where to find a nice, juicy catterpillar. It's a survival mechanism, and that's exactly what happens in The Happening. Plants all over north-eastern states in America decide that humans are big, planet-hogging jerks. Except, instead of plants signalling wasps to come munch us up, they release a neuro-toxin that effectively shuts off the human survival mechanism, and indeed seems as though it pushes it to the extreme opposite. Cue mass suicides. I guess MNS really wants us to cut back on the carbon emissions, or something. Done spoiling.

This is the first of MNS's movies to boast an MPAA rating of 'R', and deservedly so. If you can't handle gore, you won't want to watch this movie. In fact, you'll probably shut it off after the first ten minutes that I talked about earlier. As for the scariness factor, it gave me the willies, and I think I jumped once or twice. It wasn't anything that'll make you poop your pants, if you're old enough to be watching the movie in the first place.

Closing thoughts? If you don't like MNS, don't watch his friggin' movies. It's that simple. Didn't like The Village or Unbreakable? Don't bother with this one. You won't like it either. I found that a lot of his films were marketed poorly before theatrical release, such that they appeared to be of a completely different genre than they really were. This one was pretty spot on. If you're ambivalent to or a fan of M. Night Shymalan's films, you might get a kick out of The Happening. As always, with MNS, go in with an open mind, and you'll come out with a brain full of delightful MNS oddities.