04/11/2015

The Happening

   
So this played out like one of the worse 'X-Files' episodes: a fair setup, with some interesting deaths, then a plot that went to shit and an unsatisfactory conclusion.
   
  
There's some pointless character setup, and then people start committing suicide all over the place. This makes for some very entertaining action sequences, with people jumping off buildings all over the place and crashing their cars and then cutting themselves. We then move into a fairly boring section of the movie, which is vaguely thoughtful, and then it turns out that it's all happening because of TREES OF DEATH because they're unhappy with human destruction.. and... the bees disappeared so... yeah.
Perhaps I'm underestimating this film, and the whole thing is just trolling us (though I sort of doubt it). Even if this is the case though, the acting is just bad. Not quite bad enough to be one of those intentionally crappy movies like 'Sharknado', but not good enough for them to be winking and smirking at us while dumbing themselves down for their movie characters. The whole thing just feels flat, lacking enough emotional depth or action to keep me interested. My expression matched that picture throughout most of the movie.
   
The Happening: 11.2