He has been recognized as a master storyteller due to these hits. However, his latest films The Village, Lady in the Water, and now The Happening have not received critical acclaim, and are henceforth working at stripping away his title.
In this movie, the world is under attack by an airborne natural disaster which paralyzes the human body by attacking the neuroses, and causes each human it infects to kill themselves.
The movie starts out with a bang. People are dying. Falling from the sky. Shooting themselves. You name it, it happened. It has an eery feel to it, and immediately draws the viewer in. However, the magic is soon lost as the movie gets corny.
The majority of the actors were not up to par. Other than the main star Elliot (Mark Wahlberg), the film was carried out by amateurs. Elliot's wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) gives a lackluster performance, coming off as cold and unapproachable. It is hard to see that Elliot (a warm and caring sentimental man) would have fallen for her. And that he would still be trying to make things work.
Characters drop like flies in this film. As soon as we start to get to know something about them, boom. They're dead.
My main annoyance with this film is that it felt like it never took off. Okay, there was a disaster. Everyone keeps dying. Elliot, Alma, and child run away. Scary things happen, they almost die, and then the scene cuts and all of the sudden they're back home again? I'm sorry, that's not how things work.
This film had no closure, or recap for that matter. It is unclear to the viewer what happened between the adventure of escaping the attack, and the way the returned to their regular lives.
This film wasn't horrible, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it. I'd say, watch Signs. It has a similar concept, but with a much better depth of character and storyline.
Shyamalan needs a new bag of tricks, because right now he's jumping without a parachute.
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