M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening starts with a stunning intro credit sequence. An elegant and evocative precursor to the movie, the tranquil movement of clouds as they pass by subtly turns menacing. An airborne toxin is blocking people's "survival" neurotransmitters and causing them to commit suicide. This is a terrifying concept, but perhaps more terrifying is not what this toxin does to those affected, but what it does to those unaffected and afraid, those still human enough to make their own decisions and suffer the consequences. The visuals are eerie and memorable, the music effective, and the pacing perfect. I'm actually very impressed with Shyamalan's progress as a technical director. Unfortunately, that's where the positives end.
There are a wide number of odd situations, side stories, and actions. Not odd in a thought-provoking way, but odd in an inexplicable and unrelated way that makes you wonder why it's in the movie at all. It often made the acting seem hollow and unnatural and made other aspects of the movie confusing as well. While Shyamalan's message against urbanization and deforestation was fine at first, it was pounded into the audience's head in an awfully heavy-handed way by the time the movie ended. Mark Wahlberg was perhaps not the best choice as the main character, mostly due to the way he talked and because I associated him with the recent SNL skit and was waiting for him to ask me to say hello to my mother for him. All in all, I really enjoyed watching the movie. It lived up to my expectations and I recommend it to anyone who was excited about it when they saw the trailers for it.IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0949731/