The Happening...

[Patryn]

...sucks. Hard.

Seen the trailer? Congratulations, you've now seen all the good parts. Also, basically the entire plot of the movie. Even at 90 minutes, it felt about 50 minutes too long.

Don't go see it. Save your money. If you must see a movie this weekend, see The Incredible Hulk, which is a flawed but decent summer movie.

[Bon]

Re: The Happening...

I knew I wasn't going to see it when I saw the director's name. Patryn, thank you for being brave enought to sit through this piece of ****. Rep.

[Goufunaki]

Re: The Happening...

Was there a twist!?!?!

It's not M Night Shamalamadingdong without the twist!

I have no plans to see this, so just say why people kill themselves in a spoiler tag.

[Patryn]

Re: The Happening...

Seriously, here's the reason and, basically, the entire plot:

*** SPOILERS ***
While it's never definitively confirmed, it's plants.

The plants have evolved to having the capability to release a gas which short-circuits a person's self-preservation centers of the brain to instead make them seek out ways to harm themselves. They draw parallels to real plants that can emit a gas which attracts wasps to kill off certain parasites and an ancient algae that recently showed up in Australia that killed a bunch of people.

The gas is spread via the wind, so you basically have large segments of the movie where the main characters are running from the wind.

The twist is supposed to be that it's not terrorists but plants. The problem is that this information shows up about halfway through the film, leaving the second-half of a boring ass film.
*** END SPOILERS ***

[Goufunaki]

Re: The Happening...

Ah, lame.

[John Mora]

Re: The Happening...

I told you ALL.

[Sezjeuric]

Re: The Happening...

Ha ha, I was waiting for that Mora.

[Duel]

Re: The Happening...

Well, at least I saved myself $10

[Patryn]

Re: The Happening...

The frustrating thing is that there are some cool ideas buried in there, it's just that M. Night doesn't explore them at all, ending up with a half-baked Night of the Living Dead/War of the Worlds pastiche with a crappy "villain".

Also: I guarantee that you'll be able to predict what will happen in every scene within 5 seconds of a scene's start. There's this one part....I'm going to spoiler tag this:

*** SPOILERS ***
There's this one part where the survivors come upon a house that they investigate in order to get some food. All the windows are boarded up and the door is locked, so you're then treated to several minutes of the people peering inside. Can you guess what happens?

Even before the movie reveals that there are people inside, I KNEW that somebody inside would shoot the survivors in that classic getting shot through the door cliche, and what do you know? A shotgun shows up and blows away two of the survivors!
*** END SPOILERS ***

[Chrono]

Re: The Happening...

It's not as bad as Indy 4.

His weakest film, although I still enjoyed it. Howard's score was great as usual.

[Riotsword]

Re: The Happening...

I told you ALL.

I said it first.

[Translucid]

Re: The Happening...

*** SPOILERS ***
He sure knows how to make a pro-environment movie.

PLANTZ: DEY GONNA GETCHA
*** END SPOILERS ***

[josh]

Re: The Happening...

it looks like an uninteresting version of the Signal and Suicide Club put together.

[Sampson]

Re: The Happening...

Patryn, you didn't "get" the twist. I didn't realize it myself until after I left the theater...

*** SPOILERS ***
The twist is that there's no happy ending ala signs. You see the two lovers reunited and blah blah blah. You assume its over. But then it cuts to France...and well, its not. There is no happy ending; the plants are going to kill everyone on earth.
*** END SPOILERS ***

[Patryn]

Re: The Happening...

Sampson -

*** SPOILERS ***
I didn't see that as a twist. I knew that was going to be the ending from almost the first 10 minutes.

It was the only way the movie could end, frankly. But even with that, it still didn't make it a great film.
*** END SPOILERS ***