The Happening - Anyone seen it?
- Thread starter Thrawn
- Start date
UniversalWolf
eaten by a grue.
MKS made one very good movie (The Sixth Sense), two decent movies (Unbreakable and Signs), and then he went crazy. Either that or he split with his writing partner on the first three, which I hazily remember reading somewhere.
His last three movies all have some potential and some salvagable material, but the endings are so utterly awful it all goes to waste. When I saw The Happening there were maybe twenty people in the theatre, and at least four of them made audible gestures of disgust at the ending.
The annoying thing is how flatly MKS keeps following the same formula that succeeded with The Sixth Sense.
1) Everything seems fairly normal on the surface, but we can tell there's something strange going on even though we don't understand why. Tension is created.
2) We gradually discover that some fearful supernatural/extra-terrestrial force is at work, accounting for our unease. The story becomes scary.
3) At the end we discover some shocking fact that completely changes our outlook on everything we've seen so far. This fact was never concealed, since evidence of it was right before our eyes in every earlier scene, but amazingly we still didn't see it coming. It also doesn't conflict with the resolution of the obvious plot.
It's a very effective recipe when it's done well. Unfortunately it hasn't been done well for three movies now, and when it's done poorly, it's a disaster. Parts 1 and 2 are still implemented with some skill, but part 3 is a catastrophy.
How about MKS directing some other kind of movie, eh? Get a new formula, at least. Stop trying to remake the same move over and over.
His last three movies all have some potential and some salvagable material, but the endings are so utterly awful it all goes to waste. When I saw The Happening there were maybe twenty people in the theatre, and at least four of them made audible gestures of disgust at the ending.
The annoying thing is how flatly MKS keeps following the same formula that succeeded with The Sixth Sense.
1) Everything seems fairly normal on the surface, but we can tell there's something strange going on even though we don't understand why. Tension is created.
2) We gradually discover that some fearful supernatural/extra-terrestrial force is at work, accounting for our unease. The story becomes scary.
3) At the end we discover some shocking fact that completely changes our outlook on everything we've seen so far. This fact was never concealed, since evidence of it was right before our eyes in every earlier scene, but amazingly we still didn't see it coming. It also doesn't conflict with the resolution of the obvious plot.
It's a very effective recipe when it's done well. Unfortunately it hasn't been done well for three movies now, and when it's done poorly, it's a disaster. Parts 1 and 2 are still implemented with some skill, but part 3 is a catastrophy.
How about MKS directing some other kind of movie, eh? Get a new formula, at least. Stop trying to remake the same move over and over.
Ever since critics wasted Equilibrium, I considered each and every movie review trash not worth the bits it's encoded in/paper it's printed on.
I liked Equilibrium.
I liked how they actually taught the enforcer dudes Gunkata and all that jazz.
I liked how they actually taught the enforcer dudes Gunkata and all that jazz.
Yawgmoth43
First time out of the vault
If you didn't want to take my word for it, here's someone who shares my thoughts:
Somethingawful.com makes humorous reviews of straight-to-video, $5 budget, terrible, B-movies. But this time, they found a big-name movie so bad, they had to review it. Here is somethingawful's review of The Happening.
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/movie-reviews/happening-shyamalan.php
Somethingawful.com makes humorous reviews of straight-to-video, $5 budget, terrible, B-movies. But this time, they found a big-name movie so bad, they had to review it. Here is somethingawful's review of The Happening.
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/movie-reviews/happening-shyamalan.php
Equilibrium was shit. get over it. 
it's as if someone took some shitty amateur wanker story and turned it into a movie.
it's as if someone took some shitty amateur wanker story and turned it into a movie.
That can easily be said of many popular movies.
Can anyone say The Matrix?
Can anyone say The Matrix?
SuAside said:Equilibrium was shit. get over it.
it's as if someone took some shitty amateur wanker story and turned it into a movie.
You mother is an amateur wanker story.
No, seriously, Equilibrium is a great movie. The attention to detail is amazing, and the gunfights even more so.
T
TorontoReign
Guest
SuAside said:Equilibrium was shit. get over it.
it's as if someone took some shitty amateur wanker story and turned it into a movie.
I don't know if your actually serious or not. Equilibrium rocked out with its cock out. It did borrow heavily from 1984 in parts, but brought enough to the table to be different. Each to his own though........
My parents watched it and my stepfather fell asleep.
shitty acting.Mikael Grizzly said:
bland hero.
attentionwhore action.
fake spiritualism.
the good parts were stolen from other stuff.
and to every fanboy's rage, i'll add that the weapons used sucked. seriously, using a sniper rifle as a supposed shotgun? not to mention the retarded twinked berettas...