i really want to like m. night shyamalan…i really do.

admittedly, there are several m. night shyamalan movies that i didn’t like. the sixth sense, the alien part of signs (sorry if you haven’t seen it, but it is 2008 now…), and lady in the water: all incredibly bad. on the other hand, though, i really like the village and i like all of signs except for the aforementioned part. i don’t know why, but there’s just some reason that i feel compelled to want to like m. night shyamalan’s movies.

with all that said, christen and i went to see his new flick, the happening last night. first, i’ll say that i haven’t actually seen a ton of press and trailers for the movie, but from what i had seen, it just looked like another one of those intriguing mysteries that you just really want to see so you can figure out what’s going on.

oh where to begin…

first off, the acting was peculiarly bad. beginning with mark wahlberg, in his opening scene, you weren’t really sure if he was intentionally talking in a strange tone or if it was bad acting. after a while, i figured out that it was just bad acting. i really can’t explain it, but it was just this sort of contrived inflection in which he spoke. i don’t know, it was weird.

in terms of the plot, it might be the most anti-climactic movie that i’ve ever seen. i just wanted to get into shyamalan’s mind to see what he was thinking with that. it wasn’t a thing where i wanted to get the typical big, shocking ending, but i wanted something much more than what he gave us. it was such a let-down. it was almost like he gave up as he was finishing the writing. i think he was going for this really stylized hitchcock kind of feel, but it just didn’t come across in the right way.

so, i hope i’m not giving too much away (i’ve kept it intentionally vague). i’m not saying don’t go see this movie, but i’m kinda saying don’t go see this movie.

don’t worry m. night, you’ll probably suck me in with the next big goofy suspense movie you put out…see you again with utter disappointment in a couple years…