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While their effect would not be as dramatic, the idea of it being somewhat based in fact was pretty cool. Shyamalan is also a talented director, who is well known enough to have the means of making a good movie. That along with the fact that Leguizamo, Deschanel, and Wahlberg are all fairly talented actors seemed to promise a pretty good film. So what went wrong?

The problem with "The Happening" was all in the writing. In basic script writing classes you learn that every story must have an inciting incident, rising action, a climax, and a resolution. It has to build and build and make the audience look for the answer to that central question, then reward them with it at the climax. This film simply didn't have a climax. It started out strong and full of fast hitting action, then slowly faded into nothing. It literally just ended out of almost nowhere, and I felt as if Shyamalan got bored while writing the script and just threw on an ending for the sake of getting done. The characters themselves were very flat and the dialog was terribly written and unnatural. Not to mention the weird thing with "Joey", which didn't even make sense. Serious moments came off as comical, all due to terrible writing. Why does this make me so angry? Because this is one of the easiest things to correct. This movie shouldn't have even made it to the screen without the script being proofread several more times; it doesn't take much to make a few changes and write a much better script.

Unfortunately, in Hollywood, once a director like Shyamalan makes both a name and a fan-base for themselves, it is easy to get almost anything made into a film, as its selling point is based on their name alone. I have a feeling though, that after this, things won't be quite as easy for this once amazing director. There is no doubt that Shyamalan still has talent, but I honestly feel that all that has "happened" due to this film is him ruining the selling value of his name.

The bottom line with this movie? Don't even waste your time.

Learn more about this author, Sarah Huth.
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