M. Night is Back...and BAD As Ever?!?

Well, the things that make people kill themselves is actually revealed early on in the movie. Someone on IMDb said it was in the train station, which is about 30 minutes into the movie. Also, they aren't screening this movie to the critics to keep the "mystery" but I don't get all the secrecy when it's going to be revealed early on in the movie.

 

....I wasn't buying it at all....but there are already some screenings, so I don't know.

Even worse, it's opening against The Incredible Hulk, which looks 10,000 times better. I agree with most of the fanboys that the first movie was a little bit of a bore and didn't deliver the goods, but early word of mouth said that this new version directed by Louis Letterier (who directed two good Jet Li/Jason Statham films) is up there with Iron Man as a satisfying comic book adaptation.

From what I hear, it's supposed to be more in tune with the TV series and comics than Ang Lee's arthouse take, the cast members do a great job (Tim Roth is getting the most praise), and the final showdown between the Hulk and the Abomination (apparently, they're gonna keep the name of Emil Blonsky's alter-ego) rivals that of Transformers' final showdown in the city (say what you want, I thought Michael Bay did a terrific job with that film, and I'm saying that aware about his previous failures - ::cough:: Pearl Harbor ::cough::).

Back to the topic of The Happening, HeadRAZZBerry has laid it perfectly clear about Lady in the Water AND this film. National Treasure 2 had LITW's same style of storytelling by cramming in an overwhelming amount of exposition and flat-out telling the story as if we're stupid. All of that film was like that. 'Nuff said.

So, basically, I know what I'm seeing coming the 13th of February.

Below is an excerpt from an article on the fansite Fantasy Moguls (LINK) predicting that "The Happening" will be only a middling success (if not an outright bomb like "Lady in the Water"):

"Opening on Friday, June 13, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening (20th Century Fox) does not appear to pose any real threat. The mercurial filmmaker, whose last film was the dreadful Lady in the Water, faces an uphill battle with this movie, which has been (badly) shrouded in secrecy. (The problematic screenplay has been rather completely shredded by Internet movie mavens.) I do not know anyone who has seen it, and it remains unclear whether there will be advance screenings for critics. That is not a good sign.

Starring Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel, The Happening has virtually no buzz with just 2 percent Un-Aided Awareness, and the movie, which may be Shyamalan’s take on global warming, has only 54 percent Awareness. It trails The Incredible Hulk in Definite Interest with a mere 30 percent, and Happening has only a 4 percent First Choice score 18 days out.

The bottom line may be that moviegoers do not trust the Indian-born, Pennsylvania-raised auteur after a less-than-satisfying twist in his 2004 movie The Village and the disastrous Lady in the Water. It is a very safe bet that The Incredible Hulk will easily win the June 13 weekend, and Shyamalan will need positive word-of-mouth to parlay The Happening into becoming a modest hit." 

If you're interested in reading the entire article (which also predicts the remake of "Incredible Hulk" will top $60 million this weekend) here's a direct LINK...

Zooey Deschanel has been in two lowly rated movies that had next to no distribution so far this year -- Flakes and The Go-Getter.  Sad thing is, she's a good actress.  Her talent lately is being squandered in second-rate movies, Bridge to Terabithia and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford being two exceptions.  I saw bits of the SciFi series Tin Man, and that actually looked interesting.

I told some of the kids about this being held from the critics. While their opinion of the movie is mixed, they agreed on one thing: that "Lady In The Water" totally sucked. One girl, even, named it her least favorite movie ever.

RESPONSE from Head RAZZberry: Whoah -- 75% DIS-Approval! Even I didn't think THE HAPPENING would sink so low so quickly on RT. Looks like maybe Fox should've stuck to their gunz, and refused to pre-screen it after all!

Well Razz, I think you are right on target with this one, It is definitely not "Happening" with the critics. After this, no major studio is going to want to take a chance with him again.