The Happening: It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature

I love apocalyptic movies like Omega Man, I am Legend, Mad Max, et al, but The Happening from writer and director M. Night Shyamalan (the “I see dead people” guy) is disappointing.

The Happening was recently released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc by Fox Home Entertainment. The movie follows a group of people on the run from an inexplicable and unstoppable event that threatens only humankind.You’ve probably seen the scary commercials showing people committing suicide by jumping off buildings or laying down in front of lawn mowers. Unfortunately, the commercials are scarier than the movie!

The actors are good, like Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel (who looks a lot like a young, raven haired Meg Ryan these days) and John Leguizamo. Still, they can’t save us from the lack of suspense. The problem is that Shyamalan gives away the reason why everyone is killing themselves way too early – and easily – in The Happening. One minor character guesses what's going on fairly early in the movie, and low and behold it’s true!

Hey Shyamalan, show not tell, you know?

The movie does have a nice eco-friendly message, but I kept wondering when the Chiffon Margarine lady was going to show up to say, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” So skip The Happening, and use your money to buy some CFL energy saving light bulbs instead.

(Thanks to Click-comm.com for the review copy.)

Shyamalan