M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie The Happening came out yesterday. I saw it. I enjoyed it. Now I want to talk about it. Or, more specifically, Shyamalan himself.
It seems that no one (at least critics, and well, people in general I guess) respects him as a director. And I don’t know if they ever did. The 6th Sense is pretty much universally agreed to be 1. an amazing film and 2. his best work. However, every single movie he has made since is being held against that high horse, and to me that just doesn’t seem very fair.
I remember when Unbreakable came out. Most of my friends did not like it one bit. And critically, it was compared endlessly to The 6th Sense, and how it didn’t hold up to it. That is fair, and unfair at the same time. Even though it had the same writer/director and lead star, and it had a “Shyamalan twist” doesn’t mean it’s in the same category as The 6th Sense. Personally, I think Unbreakable is his best film. Far better then The 6th Sense in every aspect.
As a director, Shyamalan was much more mature in Unbreakable then Sense, and he ironed out some of the things that you see in all of his following movies. But, I’m not a film student, so I can’t begin to tell you how he does it compared to others, what I can tell you is that I enjoy it.
Signs is my second favorite film of his. It brought many things to the table that I enjoyed, and, most importantly, had a very good message: “Everything happens for a reason.” That stuck with me.
The Village, and Lady In the Water, I will admit, those two films were his worst. Lady was far too fanatsy, and there was no real…anything about it to make me want to see it other then Shyamalan’s name (and yes, there are a handful of people who no matter what their name is attached to, I will pay to see regardless). And The Village was predictable. I don’t care if it was apparently based on a book, it was predictable, and kinda boring. To me it felt that Shyamalan went to “gotcha!” moments in film showing those creatures, instead of the mystery and suspense of his first 3.
The Happening is a return to that mystery and suspense. Unlike Lady, where I could care less what happened to Paul Giamatti’s character, I actually cared for Mark Wahlberg, and Zoey Deschanel.
I don’t want to say much more about it because I don’t want to spoil it. But I will say that it is very current event driven, not politically, (although that could be questioned), but the whole point is subtle, but in your face at the same time.
I rate The Happening as 3.5 out of 4 stars. It’s good, but not a masterpiece. Hopefully it marks the return of the M. Night Shyamalan who gave us The 6th Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. It certainly belongs among those 3 as one of his best, and possibly, one of the best films of recent years.
