Topic: The Happening

[iPPi]

This movie sucked...  well the first 40 minutes were bearable as I wanted to see what happened next, but there was no tension, and the writing, and acting were just bad.

[Xessive]

I've always thought Shyamalan was overrated. The Happening is a surprisingly accurate depiction of exactly what I hate about his style. It's like he has nothing but he's trying really hard to make something out of it.

Even the movie's title is so uninspired "The Happening" as if he was thinking something like "Fuck. What am I gonna call it?! FUCK! Ok, It's a story about something.. happening.. nobody's sure what's happening.. something's happening.. Fuck it, I'll call it The Happening!"

[idolminds]

What a twist!

[scottws]

Well I thought The Sixth Sense was great, and Signs was alright.  But yeah everything else has been pretty underwhelming.  Lady in the Water was horrid.

[gpw11]

Well I thought The Sixth Sense was great, and Signs was alright.  But yeah everything else has been pretty underwhelming.  Lady in the Water was horrid.

I agree with this.  This guy needs to find a new career at this point.

[Quemaqua]

I actually liked that movie.  It was weird, but it wasn't bad.  You just had to look at it from the right perspective.  I wouldn't call myself a fan of his stuff, though.

[angrykeebler]

Zooey Deschanel is the only reason to watch this

[Xessive]

I kinda liked Lady in the Water. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a great movie but I thought it was a pretty good take on fairytales. The only others I liked were The Sixth Sense (which was enjoyable despite how predictable it was) and Unbreakable (although it was long-winded and slow-paced).

[Cobra951]

I liked those and The Village as well.  I couldn't stand Signs.  I really thought we were beyond aliens who can build starships but don't know how to dress for toxic environments.  I thought we left that behind with Invasion of the Saucer Men.

But I have yet to see The Happening.  I'm in no rush.

[gpw11]

Oh yeah, I liked Unbreakable as well.  The Village was so so for me.  I was kind of expecting something else.

[Quemaqua]

That's really the big problem with all of his movies, I think: expectations.  He isn't what I'd call a bad filmmaker.  He's creative, does stuff a lot of others don't, and his movies are generally worth watching if you come at them from the right angle.  The problem with that is that all of his movies are marketed in exactly the wrong ways which give people exactly the wrong impression about them.  Seriously, every single fucking movie.  And so they watch them, are confounded because it's nothing like what they were expecting, and the movie fails for them.  That's why I hated Unbreakable but enjoyed The Sixth Sense and Lady in the Water.  Signs, while absolutely terrible from a sci-fi standpoint, was brilliant in that it had basically nothing to do with aliens at all.  They were completely incidental to the real story, which was about a family and their connections to one another.  But everyone hated it because it was marketed as a movie about aliens.

It baffles me, and is one of the reasons I can't say I'm a fan.  I just never quite know how to receive the films or process them afterward.  Overall I think he's sort of middling because of the fact that he just can't fully commit to a set of ideas, and he's a little confused about what he actually wants to make.  Occasionally that can be surprising and refreshing, but it can also be confusing and annoying.

[gpw11]

I think the thing with The Village is I kind of expected him to move away from the concept of "Interesting premise.....TWIST!!!!!!!" at around that point.  He didn't, and now that I think about it, the movie didn't suck, it just wasn't really good in my opinion. 

I agree that he isn't a BAD filmmaker.  I just wouldn't go so far as to say he's a good one.  He's certainly capable of coming up with interesting ideas, but I kind of think at this point he should pass it off to someone else after that step.  Lady in the Water left a really bad taste in my mouth.

[Quemaqua]

I dunno', I liked that movie.  There was something very honest about it that I found attractive as a movie that focused on the human spirit and the willingness of people to do good.  I also sort of enjoyed the ridiculous characterizations, and I liked most of the leads.  A weird movie, and I don't think many out there would find it that enjoyable, much less coherent, but I liked it for what it was.  You have to be someone very specific for that one.

I fully agree with you about The Village, though.  It really wasn't a bad movie, and I didn't find myself groaning or wishing I was watching something else when I sat down to watch it, but I really didn't like it that much and have no desire to see it again.  I could say the same for Signs, actually, even though I liked the odd way he worked that one.  I think it's safe to say that The Sixth Sense is still far and away his best movie.  I still like that one and could watch it again without issue.

[gpw11]

You know what I think it was about Lady in the Water?  Actually, I can't really remember it, but whatever mechanic they had about writers being really important because of the worlds they create.  I think that's what killed The Dark Tower for me too.  I don't know why, but it seems like a really stupid thing to say and I just imagine these jackasses sitting there going "Yeah...this is me...I'M SAVING THE WORLD...IN STARBUCKS". 

Note that The Neverending Story is completely awesome.

[Pugnate]

I still like Shyamalan, even though Lady in the Water was atrocious, and I haven't actually seen The Happening -- which isn't what it was supposed to be called.

It was basically supposed to be a B-movie with R-rated gore about the planet turning on the species ruining it, with plenty of amusing deaths. The movie was initially called The Green Effect, which while is still a turdy title, is far less turdy than The Happening.

Also, please note that the title, The Green Effect, gave a clear indication as to what the movie was about. Instead, the suits wanted Shyamalan to stick with his "mysterious and spooky" style, which is why none of the adverts for The Happening gave away the fact that it was about the environment. The suits were also the ones to pick the title.

Anyway, Shyamalan's next film will be a quite a departure from his normal work. It is going to be the live action version of the cartoon, Avatar.

Please note: My opinion that Lady in the Water was atrocious, is just that... my opinion. It is not meant to offend the people who did like it.

For the record, I didn't mind The Village, even though most seemed to hate it.

You know what I think it was about Lady in the Water?  Actually, I can't really remember it, but whatever mechanic they had about writers being really important because of the worlds they create.  I think that's what killed The Dark Tower for me too.  I don't know why, but it seems like a really stupid thing to say and I just imagine these jackasses sitting there going "Yeah...this is me...I'M SAVING THE WORLD...IN STARBUCKS".

It was a very pretentious film. Shyamalan's somewhat self absorbed camera work, I still enjoy, but the script for Lady was far too self indulgent.

I found the movie to be a lot like Scientology. It was a lot of insane nonsense, without any substance to make it believable. The characters behaved ridiculously and totally unrealistically, and were written in that manner so as not to amuse, but rather to push the plot along. In fact everything from the characters to the actual plot, was full of convenient and lazy writing.

That was the problem with the movie. I was with it initially, but not too far in, I just started calling bull. It just didn't back any of its shit up, and kept piling on the nonsense. What was worse was that the characters weren't nearly as skeptical about the whole thing, as they should have been.

I'll end this with a quote from a movie critic I read, that I liked, because it summed up my feelings pretty nicely as well. It was something like,"In the end, Shyamalan's Lady never gives us a reason to believe."



 

[Cobra951]

Please note: My opinion that Lady in the Water was atrocious, is just that... my opinion. It is not meant to offend the people who did like it.

You never have to worry about that with me.  I can't begin to understand warfare over movie criticism.

Lady in the Water held my attention once through because it was so different.  You're right that the plot is complete nonsense, but so are most fairy tales.  That's the category I think this movie belongs in.  As such, it was worth watching.  And Paul Giamatti never hurts.

Your detailed post has me more curious about The Happening now than before.  It's not that I think the premise holds any water.  Most liberal-slanted stories I take as fantasy, and (like Lady in the Water) I can still get into them.  For example, The American President.  There's a movie that has no chance of ever being reality, yet I found it charming.  (Michael Douglas and Annette Bening didn't hurt.)

[Quemaqua]

Yes, Lady in the Water is absolutely a fairy tale.  It was based on a fairy tale that Shyamalan wrote for his kids, in fact.  Realism or believability, if you were looking for them, weren't there in any capacity.  As I said, if you come at the movie from the wrong perspective it's nothing but absurd.  And Pug, I fully understand why people don't like the movie, and I normally take no issue with people saying so.  The other evil thread on the movies board was a different beast, and I think it's clear why if you read it from top to bottom, not to mention the misinterpretation of motives.  I'm baffled it even happened once, and would be shocked to see it happen twice.  Besides that, these movies (however subjective in their overall quality), are actually worth discussing, a difference in the other thread which is partly what led to my incredulousness at the ongoing outcry.  I sincerely hope that instance is quickly forgotten by all.  Because I like discussing film, and would be ashamed if I did anything to stifle such discussion.

Interesting notes on The Happening.  I didn't know any of that, nor even what the film was about.  That makes me slightly more curious to see it, actually, and it looks like it could indeed point to that penchant for all his movies to be really awful if you're expecting one thing and getting another.  I wouldn't have had any clue what to make of that movie had I stepped in to see it without reading your post... and I don't know if that would have been good or bad.  Could have been a nice surprise since the premise sounds pretty amusing to me, but it also could have ruined it.  Hard to say.

Maybe I'll have to rent that one now.

[scottws]

You know what I think it was about Lady in the Water?  Actually, I can't really remember it, but whatever mechanic they had about writers being really important because of the worlds they create.  I think that's what killed The Dark Tower for me too.  I don't know why, but it seems like a really stupid thing to say and I just imagine these jackasses sitting there going "Yeah...this is me...I'M SAVING THE WORLD...IN STARBUCKS". 

Note that The Neverending Story is completely awesome.

The thing I hated about Lady in the Water was that it tripped over itself explaining everything.  That and it was just dumb as hell even from a fairytale perspective.  I agree with Que about the (human) characters, but that's as far as it goes.

[PyroMenace]

Que Ill give you this warning before you rent because I went in thinking the along the same lines as you where his films tend to be misinterpreted and how they are received. I didn't like Lady in the Water much but I can still recognize it doing some interesting things. However, from what I saw, this is not the case with The Happening. This movie was bad in every sense of the word, even by Shyamalan's standards. The Green Effect premise it takes while is somewhat interesting, fails abysmally to be spooky and more along the lines of absurd. There is ALOT of misdirection in the movie as well as your constantly asking what the fuck they were doing or thinking while focusing on various things in shots where it was supposed to be tense. The character development is so over-dramatized and nonsensical its laughable. Then theres the dialogue, I cant even blame the actors for odd performances because they really didnt have much to work with in the script, theres just a lot of awkward lines and just pointless conversations. I can usually understand for what hes going for in movies and what he building upon, but this waste of 2 hours was a complete train wreck. Good luck to you if you decide to rent it.

[Quemaqua]

Yeesh.  That sounds pretty bad.  Like I said, I don't really even get how the movie is setting out to do what it's trying to do other than be shocking with the sort of "omg wtf did that dude just do" aesthetic (which I can't even say if it'll even attempt since, like all his movies, what you think it's going to do isn't usually what it does).  I probably wouldn't go out of my way to rent it anyway, but I may watch it just because Julia's curiosity usually gets the better of her.  I don't watch too many movies these days.  But sometimes watching a train wreck can be a good time, and you guys really have me wanting to see just how bad it is now.

[MysterD]

I kinda liked Lady in the Water. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a great movie but I thought it was a pretty good take on fairytales. The only others I liked were The Sixth Sense (which was enjoyable despite how predictable it was) and Unbreakable (although it was long-winded and slow-paced).

Sixth Sense and Unbreakable are my two fav. M. Night films -- loved 'em both.

Signs was good, but I didn't like it as much as the first two.

The Village was M. Night at his worst and best, all in one movie. I hated the first half of The Village, but loved the 2nd half. I thought the pacing of the first half was awful -- absolutely awful.
Village spoilers

(click to show/hide)

But, once a certain person got killed, the movie began to pick up for me and stuff started unraveling and getting a little more interesting

Lady In The Water had a cool plotline and premise, but it is almost unbearable to watch b/c the dialogue and pacing of the film are absolutely horrible.

I want to see The Happening, but again....I have this bad feeling it'll be either another Village or Lady In The Water for me.

[W7RE]

I don't know, I've liked all his movies. Maybe it's jus that I go into the viewing with an open mind and no expectations. Everyone keeps saying his movies are horrible and boring, so I start the movie up expecting something horrible and boring. I guess as the hype over his films has turned people away from him, they're anti-hype has helped me enjoy his movies more.

I was disappointed in The Sixth Sense though. All I kept hearing before I saw it was "one of the scariest horror movies I've seen!". It wasn't horror. Just becuse it's got ghosts and some gore doesn't make it scary. It was a drama about the boy's experience, as well as that of Bruce Willis' character.

[scottws]

I don't know, I've liked all his movies. Maybe it's jus that I go into the viewing with an open mind and no expectations. Everyone keeps saying his movies are horrible and boring, so I start the movie up expecting something horrible and boring. I guess as the hype over his films has turned people away from him, they're anti-hype has helped me enjoy his movies more.

This worked for me for The Village, which I kind of liked aside from the fact it should have been shorter.  It didn't work at all for Lady in the Water, which I found to be worse than I'd heard.

I was disappointed in The Sixth Sense though. All I kept hearing before I saw it was "one of the scariest horror movies I've seen!". It wasn't horror. Just becuse it's got ghosts and some gore doesn't make it scary. It was a drama about the boy's experience, as well as that of Bruce Willis' character.

Yes you were clearly misinformed there.  I did hear how awesome it was, but didn't really know anything about the movie other than it was about ghosts and I still found it to be superb.

[Xessive]

Just watched The Happening. I know I know, but I had to see how bad it was. "The Happening" is a stupid title. "The Green Effect" would have been better by far. I mean it's pretty obvious from the get-go that it's about environmental effects so that title wouldn't give anything away.

Anyway, I would describe this movie as a long episode of The Twilight Zone.. One of the boring ones not the cool ones.