By request...
May. 30th, 2009 11:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silverthornea brief review of M Night Shyamalan's 'The Happening'.
I'll try not to spoiler it too much.
First off, I'll say that I'm pleased that it wasn't rife with religious overtones, especially since somehow I got the impression from preview commercials when it first came out that there might be. I don't think it got mentioned even once, or, if it did, I missed it.
The premise of what was going on was actually based on scientific theory that's been around for years and pretty sound on it's own. M Night did push it a little beyond logical progression, indicating everything going on was definitely intentional and happening when it intended to, but one of the factors involved tends to be a bit too capricious in reality to be a reliable vehicle, so unless you're willing to read the 'Living Earth' theory into it as well, there's a tiny bit of a stretch there.
I liked the ambiance--it was just this side of going into full blown horror flick mode, but did a better job of maintaining believable tension and ambient fear than 'The Village' did, so in that regards, I think he's finally learned to 'pick a genre' when he makes movies. I also like the mostly low key treatment throughout the movie. It helped to make the more dramatic moments stand out.
On the flip side of that, it was so low key, especially in regards to actual character development, that I wasn't particularly affected by what happened to the people in the movie other than in a vague 'oh, that was horrible/sad/unexpected'. When I've had more emotional reaction to the demise of a teeny bopper in a slasher flick compared to this movie, that's not a good thing, and it's a big down vote IMHO. There's plenty of openings and reasons for the audience to actually care what happens to these people, but the delivery of who and what these people are about, as well as the passive (and often odd) interactions between the characters really kills any chance of the audience actually caring. Even the big climatic moment when you're not sure if the main characters are going to die or live comes across as a pretty 'meh' moment. I wanted to know, but I didn't feel any emotional reaction to it, which I should have by that point in the movie.
In the end, although I liked some parts of it, and would probably watch it again for the 'science' part of it, I can't say I'd recommend it if you're looking for a movie to really 'get into' and have any visceral reactions to. It has a great premise, decent science, a good script, and even the pacing is good, but the delivery is pretty flat.
Three out of four stars.
I'll try not to spoiler it too much.
First off, I'll say that I'm pleased that it wasn't rife with religious overtones, especially since somehow I got the impression from preview commercials when it first came out that there might be. I don't think it got mentioned even once, or, if it did, I missed it.
The premise of what was going on was actually based on scientific theory that's been around for years and pretty sound on it's own. M Night did push it a little beyond logical progression, indicating everything going on was definitely intentional and happening when it intended to, but one of the factors involved tends to be a bit too capricious in reality to be a reliable vehicle, so unless you're willing to read the 'Living Earth' theory into it as well, there's a tiny bit of a stretch there.
I liked the ambiance--it was just this side of going into full blown horror flick mode, but did a better job of maintaining believable tension and ambient fear than 'The Village' did, so in that regards, I think he's finally learned to 'pick a genre' when he makes movies. I also like the mostly low key treatment throughout the movie. It helped to make the more dramatic moments stand out.
On the flip side of that, it was so low key, especially in regards to actual character development, that I wasn't particularly affected by what happened to the people in the movie other than in a vague 'oh, that was horrible/sad/unexpected'. When I've had more emotional reaction to the demise of a teeny bopper in a slasher flick compared to this movie, that's not a good thing, and it's a big down vote IMHO. There's plenty of openings and reasons for the audience to actually care what happens to these people, but the delivery of who and what these people are about, as well as the passive (and often odd) interactions between the characters really kills any chance of the audience actually caring. Even the big climatic moment when you're not sure if the main characters are going to die or live comes across as a pretty 'meh' moment. I wanted to know, but I didn't feel any emotional reaction to it, which I should have by that point in the movie.
In the end, although I liked some parts of it, and would probably watch it again for the 'science' part of it, I can't say I'd recommend it if you're looking for a movie to really 'get into' and have any visceral reactions to. It has a great premise, decent science, a good script, and even the pacing is good, but the delivery is pretty flat.
Three out of four stars.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-05-31 12:37 pm (UTC)