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I haven't seen acting this bad in a major motion picture since the last Uwe Boll film I viewed. And I'm not sure Uwe Boll films should count. Zooey Deschanel is so poorly miscast as the overly emotional (yet hates-to-show-her-emotions) love interest it makes my head spin. Mark Wahlberg's talent goes to waste as he struggles the entire film with poorly written dialog. In one such instance an, "Oh no," escapes from his mouth, so uncommitted, and so terribly acted that it feels more like Walberg's first realization that he's in a terrible film than his character's reaction to the "terrifying" events around him. The movie begins in a great place with characters in the dark, and then the writer/director tears that to pieces by supplementing them (and us) with constant information and exposition through television, radio, and word of mouth. We even cut away from the main characters to others we've never seen before in locations we've never been to in aid of learning about what is going on. The entire "fear of the unknown" element is completely destroyed before the middle of act two. I have to wonder if M. Night Shyamalan's first treatment of the screenplay left the characters in the dark, but when everyone laughed at the cause of the events he moved that information into Act 2. No suspense, please. The film was shot beautifully in the worst possible way. The whole Cloverfield/Blairwitch/Quarantine camera gimmick is almost a cliche at this point, but The Happening really could have benefited from a voyeuristic approach. The only instance that comes close in the film is the lion attack which is so poorly executed, the unmotivated tilting up of the camera to hide the gore was groan worthy. Instead, we get the big budget crane and steadicam treatment. Wide crane shots follow the action for the sole purpose of indicating to the audience the group's population at the sacrifice of emotional conflict/drama in the frantic chase moments. Everything in this "B Movie" is polished and as a result comes off as completely false. This may be the first time I've ever felt that a movie was made worse by having a larger budget. (Scratch that, Equilibrium vs Ultraviolet). If this had been a much lower budget straight to DVD horror film (and there's no reason it couldn't have been), it might have been terrific. Pros - Awesome suicide sequence involving a vehicle coming to a stop, and then speeding up. Subtle, and then OH poo poo. Cons - Acting. Writing. ...Acting. Uh, The writing. And that ridiculous scare-moment of the old lady finding Walberg with her doll. What genre is this film Mr. Shyamalan? You don't seem to know. 1.5 out of 5 numeric_atrophy fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Jun 14, 2008 |
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Jun 14, 2008 15:44
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 04:16 |
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