As I took my seat for M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening I couldn’t help but feel slightly worried. Personally I haven’t enjoyed any of his movies since The Sixth Sense. They all had a lot to live up to and have sadly not quite been able to. Maybe I just don’t get him...

It wasn’t long until I realised that all of my apprehensions were correct. All of the hype that has been in the media about this movie seems to have been to generate interest when there blatantly shouldn’t be any.

The plot is fairly simple, the population are being eradicated by some sort of toxin/virus. This is the story of their escape. As the tale unfolds you start to realised that this story has some ecological undertones about how people are destroying the planet and should stop. With that in mind, fair game to M. Night Shyamalan.  He’ taken a global political hot potato and run with it.

I've come to expect more from Zooey Deschanel. Her acting was wooden and awkward as if she had read the script ten minutes before the set call. The rest of the characters were just not quite right, they lacked realism and if making a movie that is trying to tell the population that we’ve messed the world up then make the characters a little bit more like the ones who have polluted the planet in the first place.

I can see where he was going with this movie but sadly it never really comes to life. If a movie needs to be hyped up then it isn’t going to be able to stand by itself and The Happening in my opinion sucked.

M. Night Shyamalan M. Night Shyamalan John Bernard, Barry Mendel, Sam Mercer, Jose L. Rodriguez, John Rusk, M. Night Shyamalan

Starring

Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez, Betty Buckley, Spencer Breslin, Robert Bailey Jr., Frank Collison, Jeremy Strong, Alan Ruck, Victoria Clark, M. Night Shyamalan, Alison Folland, Kristen Connolly, Cornell Womack, Curtis McClarin, Robert Lenzi, Derege Harding, Kerry O'Malley, Shayna Levine, Stéphane Debac, Cyrille Thouvenin, Babita Hariani, Alicia Taylor, Edward James Hyland, Armand Schultz, Stephen Singer, Sophie Burke, Alex Van Kooy, Charlie Saxton, Kathy Lee Hart, Lisa Furst, Rick Foster, Marc H. Glick, Don Castro, Bill Chemerka, Jann Ellis, Whitney Sugarman, Mary Ellen Driscoll, Greg Wood, Peter Appel, Eoin O'Shea, Michael Quinlan, Lyman Chen, Brian O'Halloran, Megan Mazaika, Rich Chew, Keith Bullard, Joel de la Fuente, Ashley Brimfield, Mara Hobel, James Breen, Carmen Bitonti, Brian Anthony Wilson, Greg Smith, Ukee Washington, John Ottavino, Sid Doherty, Wes Heywood, Nancy Sokerka, Julia Yorks, Bill Shusta, Kirk Penberthy, Alex Craft, Allie Habberstad, Frank Aptacy, Michael Biscardi, Robert Bizik, Lee Burkett, Chelsea Connell, Leslie Connell, Adam Danoff, Michael Den Dekker, Farris Ellington, Alexander Emmert, Robert Fazio, Ruben Fischman, Leilani Goode, Richard Graves, Thomas M. Hagen, Mark Jacobson, Steven J. Klaszky, Michael J. Kraycik, Traci Law, Nicole Lee, Roberto Lombardi, Art Lyle, Chris McMullin, Ken Myers, Mauricio Ovalle, Charles Pendelton, Mark Pricskett, Vincent Riviezzo, Sam Rocco, Christina Sampson, Ben Samuels, Chuck Schanamann, Adam Schoon, Eugene Smith, Samantha Steffen, Joseph Tornatore, Scott Troost, Jared Uhrich, Catrina Villani, Joseph Villani, Kimberly Villanova, Megan Rose Wieder, Jennifer Wiener, Mike Wilson, John Wooten, Scott Yannick, Stosh Zona