The Happening

[msmoon]

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

M. Night Shyamalan has a new movie out right? The Happening. Well, Reiko and I went to see it today (spoiler alert: the plants did it). And I confess, being a movie that Shyamalan puts out…well, I couldn’t wait to see what was happening in The Happening. Sad to say, though there is a bit of happening, the movie still leaves you feeling slightly...unsatisfied. It starts off really happening; people are killing themselves all over New York. It starts in Central Park, and I remember jokingly telling Reiko “It’s the trees! They’re terrorist!” But that was just a joke. The movie progresses and then you keep waiting for things to start happening. There’s happenings spread out all over the place, and you get horrific glimpses of them here and there. You find out later that we’ve screwed with the environment, so the trees and plants decide to screw us. There’s an amusing part where Elliot sees a plant in a house they’ve found and tries to tell the plant that they’re only their to use the facilities and move on – he soon finds the plant is plastic and he’s been talking to a plastic plant. Very funny. But after seeing numerous people kill themselves in very inventive ways I might add, we return to the same areas three months later to find life is pretty much back to normal, and scientists are still speculating on what could have been happening. One scientists says that he believes that it was a warning to us for screwing with the environment. That like red algae blooms that kill fish in the ocean, the plants were coordinating an offensive against us to tell us they were capable of hurting us in the same manner we’ve hurt them. Then after the main characters receive glorious news that they are soon to be parents….we flash to Paris where something…is Happening.

And the movie ends. Like I said…very plausible. Smart and methodical. But still...unsatisfying and anticlimactic. As far as I’m concerning…The Happening …wasn’t very happening.