Movie Review - The Happening

I just saw The Happening tonight. And it DIDN'T suck! No, really, it didn't.

After the atrocious trailers that they kept showing time and time again before seemingly EVERY movie in the past several months, I was determined that this movie was going to be awful. Maybe it was because the trailer misinterpreted what the story was. When I saw the people flying off the buildings, I could have sworn this was going to be a movie about aliens...or where people get yanked up into the sky and disappear (what was that movie? The Missing, I think?) but when you find out that they are not flying through the air, they are actually jumping off the building killing themselves, at least that makes more sense. But you don't know that by watching the trailer. In fact, you don't even know it until after you see the sudden downpour of bodies hitting the pavement. I think if I would have understood that part better, I might not have been dreading seeing this movie. And ask anyone I have talked to about it and they will tell you that I said I only wanted to see The Happening so that I could get past the wonderment of how stupid the storyline was going to be and so that I could tell others how avoidable it was so they could save their money. (I wish someone would have told me how horrible The Village was before I wasted my time watching THAT awful hunk of mess...building and building to a scare and then nothing. Man, was I pissed!) And, in fact, I had every intention of using my free movie ticket for it so that I could say that at least I didn't spend any money on it. Alas, the free movie ticket is only good on movies that have been out in theaters at least two weeks. (Didn't know that.) So I paid my $ 9.25, used my free popcorn ticket and bought a frozen coke and figured I'd just enjoy my snacks while the movie attempted to entertain me.

The theater was quite packed which was surprising since I figured everyone would be there to see The Incredible Hulk. This was a much older crowd, so perhaps these folks already saw that movie either last night like I did or earlier in the evening. (I worked late tonight, so there were a few showings of Hulk that they could have already seen.)

Anyway, the movie starts out in Central Park where lots of people are just walking around the park. Some jogging, some just enjoying the day and all of a sudden you see them all stop moving and then one girl totally out of the blue, takes a hairpin from her neatly made up bun and shoves it into her own neck. Then one by one, everyone starts killing themselves.

Interesting start.

Next you are seeing a classroom where Mark Wahlberg (normally one of my favorites - not so much in this one) is a science teacher who is having a class discussion regarding people's opinions on why and how bees would suddenly disappear and what the effects would be on the world. A few comments were made bantering back and forth between teacher and not-paying-attention student that get laughs, so at least we're off to a good start. And then the principal shows up to excuse the teacher from the classroom and you find out that all of the teachers have been gathered to talk about this new terrorist attack that is sweeping the northeastern region of the US. School has now been canceled and everyone is told to leave the area. As the last shot, you see written on the blackboard that if bees disappeared completely, humans would only have four years before becoming extinct.

Getting very, very interesting now.

So a few scenes go by and you meet various characters along the way. One really stupid scene involving a cell phone ringing and the girl trying to decide whether or not to answer it...it was just laughable when it probably wasn't supposed to be. Then again, there were quite a few laughs that probably weren't meant to be laughed at.

In the meantime, people go to their homes, pack up their stuff and then head to the train station and they're on their way to Pittsburgh (I think that's the correct city - doesn't really matter ... they're just needing to get away from where they are now before this unknown airborne thing gets ahold of them) and before they reach their destination, the train stops in a remote town because all communication has been lost (that horrible line from the trailer doesn't need my repeating it here). Theories are now in place regarding what might be causing this attack and who/what is behind it and the really creepy thing is that based on how they describe this thing, it really COULD happen. Might be a tad far-fetched, but given enough scientific documentation, I really believe it could one day be a very real threat. I don't want to go into more than that because I don't want to be the one to spoil the story.

There's more boring dialogue and some pretty dumb scenes where people are basically running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to find shelter ... somewhere and then there are a few good hot dog jokes (that got whoops of laughter from the audience) and then just when you're convinced it's gonna be a dull movie, the first REALLY great scene comes at you and you don't know where it came from but your heart has now leapt into your throat and a gasp escapes from your mouth and you're not sure if you yelped or if that was the person sitting next to you.

There were about 4 or 5 really good OH MY GOD scenes that the one mentioned above had me jumping out of my seat. (I assure you, that is not a typical occurrence.) Again, don't want to give specifics because it's best experienced first hand when no knowledge of what it coming is there. (I'm sure you could find it blasted everywhere on the imdb spoiler sections though if you REALLY want to know.)

So the acting was horrible, but you knew that just by watching the trailer. Mark does not do well with the surprised emotion. He pretty much had that deer in the headlights look pasted on his face the entire movie. And Zooey who played his estranged wife....oh, my... she was just awful. I'm sorry my FPOTP, I know you love her, but her acting was horrible. She was pretty much zombie girl the entire movie and while, yes, she was very pretty, it was difficult to care if she survived or not because after you learn about her secret, you wonder if you even like her anymore. There wasn't much chemistry between the main characters yet you still kinda rooted for them to at least get back together before the end credits rolled.

I absolutely HATED the ending. I wish I could comment on why I hated it, but that in itself would be a spoiler. Let's just say that I sincerely hope there is an alternate ending or two on the dvd.

I guess I'm undecided on whether to recommend this movie or not. It definitely gets points for shocking me literally out of my seat and there were a lot of in your face type creepy scenes and the basic plot was pretty good, so that right there I think is worth the price of the ticket. BUT this one doesn't contain anything superspecial that requires a big screen to see it, so maybe it would be best to wait til it comes out on dvd. Or, if it happens to be at the dollar show then that might be a good time to see it. For those of you who work with me, I do plan on buying the dvd, so you may borrow it after I see it again, but at this time, I don't think I need to see it again in the theater.

Bottom line? Watchable. Enjoyable. But would be best enjoyed as a Mystery Science Theater 3000 flick or at least watched with someone you can do your own MST3K commentary with. (Hey, at least it wasn't horrible like The Village.)

Vixy :]