Movie Review: The Happening

What can I say about this movie? I really expected a lot when I went to see The Happening this weekend. I ignored all of the bad reviews I’ve been reading, surely it had to be better then what people are saying right? I mean, previews looked so good.

The Happening seems like it would be a good concept, another “The World is Ending” flick that fans of the genre would surely enjoy. It had a good twist too; instead of people turning into zombies they essentially kill themselves and the means of ‘infection’ is very mysterious. But the dialogue, acting, even how they went about executing the plot just didn’t do it for me. The movie was lame.

There were good parts, don’t get me wrong. The film has its moments of suspense but everything around those moments was either too loose, drawn out, or just plain tacky. It just felt low quality and thrown together, it felt like a movie I’d catch myself watching on FOX some Sunday afternoon. It’s sad because M. Night Shyamalan is the guy that brought us true modern classics including a couple of my favorites like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable.. I don’t know, maybe he needs to have Bruce Willis star in all of his movies.

The bottom line: The Happening had so much potential to be a summer hit but in reality it’s a decent rental at best.