Ian WhiteM. Night What Happened? A Review (May contain a few spoilers)
June 17th 2008 15:33
It's my own fault. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. How could I not? This is the man that delivered the epic 'holy crap' moment during the Sixth Sense. He impressed me with Unbreakable and made me jump like Kobe Bryant over a snake infested swimming pool with Signs. So I was willing to ignore the talk that surrounded his last two efforts which received luke warm responses. I liked the Village and think the hate stemmed from arrogant critics not wanting to admit that they misjudged something that went over their heads. I can't defend Lady in the Water, so I won't bother. However, none of that mattered. This was new M. Night season. The time of year for misleadingly good trailers and a fascinating premise. Plus this one had Mark Wahlberg and people falling off buildings, I had to check it out. It wouldn't be bad, M. Night would show up the doubters without casting himself as a main character and tooling an in film critic in the ultimate display of immaturity.
So on Saturday afternoon, I went to my usual theater, paid for my 8 dollar ticket and bought some cold, overpriced movie food, because I just knew it would be worth every penny. (And I missed breakfast) I passed the time waiting for the movie to let out and for the workers to half heartedly clean the place of discarded nacho trays and spilled popcorn by reading some of The Great Derangement. How appropriate a selection, as I've just now realized. Finally it was time to go in and after sitting through the previews of crap I don't want to see for the most part, it was time for:
The Happening
And the painful irony: nothing happened.
It was apparent after Wahlberg expressed shock at people blowing their own brain's out with all the enthusiasm you'd expect from dropping your keys on the floor, that M. Night would have to pull out a plot that would kick the Sixth Sense in the Nads. To my immense disappointment, he didn't. Now don't let people fool you into believing this is the worst movie ever....They're just upset. Its like when your lover cheats on you and you might just wish for a meteor to fall on them and for a building to accompany it. Sure you believe it at the time, but once you cool off, you only feel like slashing their tires. The frustrating thing about this movie, besides the staggeringly awful acting was its brilliant moments. There was one scene where Mark Walhberg's character was being screamed at by this old lady (no she didn't buy tickets) but the way M. Night had her enter and how he focused the camera on her was brilliantly bone chilling, coupled by the eerie sounds. Yeah, I have to take the time to commend James Newton Howard for another brilliant job with the music. Simply incredible. Unfortunately it was not enough to bail out this effort. M. Night took a brilliant premise and ruined it with his in your face environmentalist symbolism and apparent hatred for mankind. Actually that wasn't even that bad, the ending was just awful and the story was painfully predictable. I knew how the thing would end before the halfway point. The only surprise was in which way somebody would off themselves. What was even scarier than the suicide inducing chemicals was he left the option open for a sequel.
5/10. M. Night, please do us all a favor and get somebody else to work on your scripts. Please. You are one of the greatest director's I've ever witnessed with James Newton Howard's genius scores backing you. Don't waste it on account of terrible story execution.
So on Saturday afternoon, I went to my usual theater, paid for my 8 dollar ticket and bought some cold, overpriced movie food, because I just knew it would be worth every penny. (And I missed breakfast) I passed the time waiting for the movie to let out and for the workers to half heartedly clean the place of discarded nacho trays and spilled popcorn by reading some of The Great Derangement. How appropriate a selection, as I've just now realized. Finally it was time to go in and after sitting through the previews of crap I don't want to see for the most part, it was time for:
The Happening
And the painful irony: nothing happened.
It was apparent after Wahlberg expressed shock at people blowing their own brain's out with all the enthusiasm you'd expect from dropping your keys on the floor, that M. Night would have to pull out a plot that would kick the Sixth Sense in the Nads. To my immense disappointment, he didn't. Now don't let people fool you into believing this is the worst movie ever....They're just upset. Its like when your lover cheats on you and you might just wish for a meteor to fall on them and for a building to accompany it. Sure you believe it at the time, but once you cool off, you only feel like slashing their tires. The frustrating thing about this movie, besides the staggeringly awful acting was its brilliant moments. There was one scene where Mark Walhberg's character was being screamed at by this old lady (no she didn't buy tickets) but the way M. Night had her enter and how he focused the camera on her was brilliantly bone chilling, coupled by the eerie sounds. Yeah, I have to take the time to commend James Newton Howard for another brilliant job with the music. Simply incredible. Unfortunately it was not enough to bail out this effort. M. Night took a brilliant premise and ruined it with his in your face environmentalist symbolism and apparent hatred for mankind. Actually that wasn't even that bad, the ending was just awful and the story was painfully predictable. I knew how the thing would end before the halfway point. The only surprise was in which way somebody would off themselves. What was even scarier than the suicide inducing chemicals was he left the option open for a sequel.
5/10. M. Night, please do us all a favor and get somebody else to work on your scripts. Please. You are one of the greatest director's I've ever witnessed with James Newton Howard's genius scores backing you. Don't waste it on account of terrible story execution.
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