What's Happening, Doc?

Yep, have now seen the latest offering of M. Night Shyamalan, The Happening. And it's... meh.

His first films were undoubtedly brilliant, but now, it's like he's going "yeah, let's do something strange, but have nothing come of it!" The plot is pretty much like any disaster movie, something happens and people try to escape... and really what else is there to know? Some of the deaths are interesting from an effects point of view, but otherwise are just there to look pretty (in an effects way) on the screen. As for the big explanation of what is happening...

There is an accusation being made that the movie is a big pro-Intelligent Design argument. Now, I can how many movies can be interpreted religiously (and let's not pretend that ID isn't religious), but... I'm not buying it here. Fine, there might be religious connotations to the movie (see the linked review), but this movie belongs solidly in the "for some reason, humans are attacked" genre, and just substitute in bees or random virus or anything else. That it's an ID mouthpiece is just looking at one or two lines and focusing on them.

But I do have one big question for MNS... what's up with the extreme close ups? Often we have faces just huge in the screen for long periods, with just their reaction shots going on... and, to be honest, the best you can say for Marky Mark is that he fills the screen. Didn't really feel a huge emotional presence. As for Zooey Deschanel, I was too busy watching the ever-changing size of her irises to really take her acting ability in.

I haven't seen his Lady Water (or whatever it's called), and can't say that after this I'm wanting to go back and fill in the gap. I'm sure MNS has more brilliant movies in him, but this isn't one of them.

[END]