THE HAPPENING - Holy mother of Christ, it's unwatchable.

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Twilight, Oct 6, 2008.

  1. Gojirob

    Gojirob Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Going Super Diclonius 4...
    Best tear Aang and his bunch right out of MNS hands. This guy is the Elmyra Duff of directors - the powers might think they're cool, but no one else can stand to see them or even hear their name.
     
  2. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I liked Lady in the Water, maybe I was in a charitable mood because it was just on HBO and I didn't have to seek it out or whatever but I thought it was a neat urban fantasy that I hadn't really seen before in live action. It didn't hurt that I was rather captivated by Bryce Dallas Howard. Not too say that I couldn't see where it was self-indulgent and a bit of an F-U to the critics but I did like it.

    I have found all of his films interesting (haven't seen The Village) and not a waste of time seeing. I liked The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable outright. I think Signs was a good movie, had he worked a little longer on the logic holes it would have been much better regarded.

    I think as he's gone on that he's become more insular and the films seem to have suffered as a result but they have provided some interesting results. I've heard nothing but bad things about The Happening and I don't disbelieve them but I'm probably going to end up checking this out against better judgment.
     
  3. Mr Light

    Mr Light Admiral Admiral

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    The Happening was HILARIOUS! I laughed my ass off the entire way through. The pretentious seriousness of the bland lifeless characters... the hilarious way people died (the lion was the best, OMG I was in tears)... running from the wind...

    SPOILERS FOR ENDING
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    Not to mention the ending where Marky Mark decides to run out and die because he didn't want to be in the cabin alone, so what does Zooey do? She ALSO runs out to die, AND TAKES THE KID WITH HER! Nice little suicide pact there. And the insane old woman who sleeps with the little girl doll... and the ending suggestion that the plants were actually attacking George W Bush... LOL...
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    SIGNS is my favorite Shyguy movie, the only one I thought completely worked. VILLAGE was terrifying until the twist, which is half dumb half clever, so I'm vaguely positive on it. SIXTH SENSE was just there for me. UNBREAKABLE was slow and boring but also a comic book so it gets a neutral. LADY WATER was god awfully pretentious but watchable (Shyguy's character will save the world in the future! wheee!).
     
  4. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    I think the thing that bothered me most about the Happening is not so much how terrible it is, but how badly filmed it is. Whatever you think of his films (and I kinda go up and down) the man can direct tension very well, and his films always look good and are usually well acted. The Happening didn't even have these elements to make up for a ludicrous plot! It seemed to be filmed and acted like a bad TV movie.

    I really think that (if he's ever let near a film again) then he should either direct someone else's script or else write a script that someone else directs.
     
  5. Evil_Kirkneivel

    Evil_Kirkneivel Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Shyamalan is going slowly downhill in a Woody Allen-ish way. Starting with The Village (in my opinion), he is plummeting. I thought The Happening (read my review here) was a tad better than Lady in the Water, but that isn't saying much.

    He may do better with his next Avatar movie, which at least is based on someone else's story. His last three story ideas have been good concepts but very weak in narrative.
     
  6. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    I've been thinking lately that Mr. Shamalamadingdong would do better directing other people's scripts and stop trying to write by himself.
     
  7. zenophite

    zenophite Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The one thing I think that was commendable about the movie was that it went against the Spielberg ethic of making the kids untouchable - the scene with the two kids getting shot could have been powerful if a) the unintentional comedic content had not already totally killed this movie and b) the scene's set up made it obvious that the kids were going to get killed so it was not even a surprise.

    This whole movie would have done better to mislead and confuse the audience as to what was actually happening and play on fears and paranoia instead of having crazy gardner guy just declare that the plants were doing it and marky-mark just decide he was right.
     
  8. nx1701g

    nx1701g Admiral Admiral

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    No, he's a History Professor focusing on Latin America.
     
  9. TheArsenal

    TheArsenal Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I saw this film in the theater opening weekend to avoid the spoilers that would eventually spill out into media. It is easily one of the worst movies I've paid to see in recent times; and there is so much wrong with it I wouldn't even know where to begin ...

    ...maybe I do actually: Wahlberg being badly miscast as the mild mannered teacher. His acting choice was to recite lines as if he were doing a guest spot on Sesame Street. This amused the audience (as noted, in all the wrong places) to no end. It also jettisoned any chance of the back story of his rocky relationship with Daschanel working. It just came across as painfully funny as they went through the motions. And key suspense moments, such as his working through solutions to the problem using grade school logic (literally, the grade school logic he taught in class), just became sit-comish.

    Desperate for something - anything - with menace, the story randomly throws in the very crazy old woman using quick cut camera work and jolting soundtrack cues instead of delivering something that was actually scary. Or made sense. Or moved the story along. Or was not plain crap.

    And the plants. If the story would have worked, perhaps many of the "scary" visual cues would have worked. But since this was a farce of a film, we were given plants gently blowing in the breeze and that was supposed to increased the adrenaline. In fact it only increased the laughs.

    In fairness, there were two set pieces at the start which worked quite well visually: the park and the construction site. But he went to that well too often too quickly in following scenes, and the entire affair descended quickly into a steaming pile.
     
  10. M'rk son of Mogh

    M'rk son of Mogh Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, me, my brother and my buddy that came along with us on opening night enjoyed the movie.

    So I guess 3 people out there feel they didn't waste their money. :)

    (Hated The Village, enjoyed Lady in the Water, really liked Unbreakable, and LOVED Signs, for a barometer of where my likes for his movies are)
     
  11. RyanKCR

    RyanKCR Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Haven't seen it yet or Lady in the Water. I've seen and like all the others but I thought the Village was his best and unbreakable was the weakest.
     
  12. Goji

    Goji Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Yeah, not likely to see this. Of his films, I've only seen Unbreakable, which was alright, and Signs, which I hated. Meh, oh well.
     
  13. MeanJoePhaser

    MeanJoePhaser Admiral

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    I think it's amusing they split the Day of the Triffids remake into two seperate movies, THE HAPPENING and BLINDNESS.

    THE HAPPENING comments SPOILERS galore:

    - The contrived way that someone has to be on a cell phone with someone in New Jersey so Zooey and Wahlberg can find out (or assume correctly) that some they know there has perished.

    - The army guy who, unlike every other person who commits suicide, talks as he does it. WTF?

    - The odd thing that one person seems unaffected at the beginning and the end, while everyone else freezes as their minds set into self-killbot mode.

    - The guns popping out windows bit...some called it...it was a pure Looney Tunes moment.

    -That millions are dead afterward is never shown with any impact beyond some scientist guy talking on t.v. that this was a warning.

    -Some sort of Michael Bay homage that Paris is the next target.
     
  14. Michael

    Michael Good Bad Influence Moderator

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    I liked it. But I also loved The Village and Lady in the Water. What now? Will I get banned? :D
     
  15. Spaceman Spiff

    Spaceman Spiff Intrepid Explorer Administrator

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    Unfortunately. :(
     
  16. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    Ban him! :mad:;)
     
  17. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    I said out, dammit!
    OMG You're right! :lol:


    Well, this definitely decides me to skip it!
    I pretty much hate Marky-Mark and everything about him, so that was strike one.
    The very little I've seen Zoey in, I thought she was a wooden and blank-staring mannequin, so, two.

    Oddly enough, I think Zoey's much prettier than her sister (and I'm a big Bones fan), but Emily seems to be able to act rings around Blinky. For one thing, Emily gets expressions!
     
  18. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    :guffaw:
     
  19. Jax

    Jax Admiral Admiral

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    Never watched all of Sixth Sense and because I know the ending I don't think I'll bother to pick it up again. Unbreakable and Signs are good however he ruined his name with the 2nd half of Village and my god that lady in the water was just poor.
     
  20. Orintho

    Orintho Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Ah, this explains a lot. I actually liked 'Signs' barring the whole alien allergy to water thing. And the set-up for 'The Village' was just too ridiculous to believe.