What are they really worried about? Killer plants or their acting careers. The combination of Foxtel and no job gives me ample opportunity to watch bad movies; the latest one? The Happening.
I tend to avoid tearing into things that everyone else already dislikes because I feel like a backup singer or a Youtube commenter; just repeating what has already been said many times before. I'm not going to criticise a Uwe Boll film because 1) everyone with taste already has done it and 2) his film's do a good enough job by themselves.
But after watching The Happening some things need to be said.
If you've been living under a rock or just don't plain care, the plot of The Happening is that plants (all plants) start releasing a neurotoxin that causes people to kill themselves. That's about it. There are some characters the film follows but they are pretty two dimensional; I'm guessing the actors saw the premise and decided not waste their time expressing emotion.
It seems that M Night Shyamalan wanted to do a slasher flick but since it wasn't his style he tried to graft some slasher elements onto a supernatural mystery thriller. I say this because the suicide-causing neurotoxin seems to cause the afflicted to kill themselves in the most gimmicky and visually stylised way possible.
One scene has some people in a car drive down a road where all the local residents had hung themselves on the trees that were along the road. This would be creepy and atmospheric in a better film, this is The Happening so instead you just wonder that it would have been easier for the people to just bash their heads into a window or two.
There are other features and applications of the toxin that I could eviscerate textually, but I've got slightly bigger fish to fry.
The entire movie either wants to be all scientific and deep, or it's a subtle but incorrect parody. At various points in The Happening the characters stop to explain (to the audience mostly) why something is happening. What makes this worse than usual is that these conclusions the characters miraculously come to all try to be seated in fact. Phrases like "scientists have proven" or "it has been shown that" are present in any of these infodumps as if Shyamalan is trying to justify his retarded concept (as I said above, I could elaborate on the toxin's many, MANY flaws but I'm trying to be brief).
Or alternatively, these 'scientific' explanations are a satire of 'educated' people who try to reason away all the things they can't understand. After all in one scene the poor excuse for a protagonist actually uses scientific method to work out what to do when a nearby group goes crazy. You what he suggests after this intellectual exercise? They run (which is obvious) from the wind (which is just plain silly).
In some scenes the plants are portrayed as possessing some sort of intelligence as apparently they are all communicating to one another and are sending a warning to humanity. But in others it is purely chemical and instinctive as they don't seem to be aware of people if there isn't a large group. Although, maybe the plants just adhere to their 'kill everyone in cities and work your way down in size' plan to the letter, and leave randoms alive while there are still town and city people to off. Whatever the reason, it just results in times where the characters are wandering around outside apparently safe nad a complete loss of tension.
The film wants to have some sort of green aesop, but messages like 'stop polluting or the trees will kill you' aren't particularly effective or clever. What's more, rather than causing people to start thinking about looking after the environment, if all plant life sent a homicide warning humanity embark on a global defoliation campaign, wiping out all plants except for those kept in controlled oxygen production facilities. Although this would probably unite the world better than the plot of Watchmen.
The worst parts of The Happening are the ones that would be good scenes in a better film; they are depressing to watch as you can see the potential for something unnerving shining through. The aforementioned street of hanging people is one example. Two other examples are when everyone in the park suddenly freeze (undermined because of the weak reasoning), and when cars of fleeing people meet up at a crossroads from all four directions (undermined by how they just stand around in the open despite all the trees nearby).
I suppose I'll just finish up with the joke that no doubt everyone has come up with independently: for a film called The Happening, nothing much happens. Comedy gold.
I tend to avoid tearing into things that everyone else already dislikes because I feel like a backup singer or a Youtube commenter; just repeating what has already been said many times before. I'm not going to criticise a Uwe Boll film because 1) everyone with taste already has done it and 2) his film's do a good enough job by themselves.
But after watching The Happening some things need to be said.
If you've been living under a rock or just don't plain care, the plot of The Happening is that plants (all plants) start releasing a neurotoxin that causes people to kill themselves. That's about it. There are some characters the film follows but they are pretty two dimensional; I'm guessing the actors saw the premise and decided not waste their time expressing emotion.
It seems that M Night Shyamalan wanted to do a slasher flick but since it wasn't his style he tried to graft some slasher elements onto a supernatural mystery thriller. I say this because the suicide-causing neurotoxin seems to cause the afflicted to kill themselves in the most gimmicky and visually stylised way possible.
One scene has some people in a car drive down a road where all the local residents had hung themselves on the trees that were along the road. This would be creepy and atmospheric in a better film, this is The Happening so instead you just wonder that it would have been easier for the people to just bash their heads into a window or two.
There are other features and applications of the toxin that I could eviscerate textually, but I've got slightly bigger fish to fry.
The entire movie either wants to be all scientific and deep, or it's a subtle but incorrect parody. At various points in The Happening the characters stop to explain (to the audience mostly) why something is happening. What makes this worse than usual is that these conclusions the characters miraculously come to all try to be seated in fact. Phrases like "scientists have proven" or "it has been shown that" are present in any of these infodumps as if Shyamalan is trying to justify his retarded concept (as I said above, I could elaborate on the toxin's many, MANY flaws but I'm trying to be brief).
Or alternatively, these 'scientific' explanations are a satire of 'educated' people who try to reason away all the things they can't understand. After all in one scene the poor excuse for a protagonist actually uses scientific method to work out what to do when a nearby group goes crazy. You what he suggests after this intellectual exercise? They run (which is obvious) from the wind (which is just plain silly).
In some scenes the plants are portrayed as possessing some sort of intelligence as apparently they are all communicating to one another and are sending a warning to humanity. But in others it is purely chemical and instinctive as they don't seem to be aware of people if there isn't a large group. Although, maybe the plants just adhere to their 'kill everyone in cities and work your way down in size' plan to the letter, and leave randoms alive while there are still town and city people to off. Whatever the reason, it just results in times where the characters are wandering around outside apparently safe nad a complete loss of tension.
The film wants to have some sort of green aesop, but messages like 'stop polluting or the trees will kill you' aren't particularly effective or clever. What's more, rather than causing people to start thinking about looking after the environment, if all plant life sent a homicide warning humanity embark on a global defoliation campaign, wiping out all plants except for those kept in controlled oxygen production facilities. Although this would probably unite the world better than the plot of Watchmen.
The worst parts of The Happening are the ones that would be good scenes in a better film; they are depressing to watch as you can see the potential for something unnerving shining through. The aforementioned street of hanging people is one example. Two other examples are when everyone in the park suddenly freeze (undermined because of the weak reasoning), and when cars of fleeing people meet up at a crossroads from all four directions (undermined by how they just stand around in the open despite all the trees nearby).
I suppose I'll just finish up with the joke that no doubt everyone has come up with independently: for a film called The Happening, nothing much happens. Comedy gold.
I do not regret seeing this film, as terrible as it was. I was more entertained by this shit film than I was by The Godfather for example.
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