I read some reviews today, and I remember when it first came out that the film got a lot of negative feedback. Some people even said it was "unintentionally funny", which I truly don't understand! I didn't see any of it as funny at all - suspenseful, strange, eerie, sad - but definitely not funny.
Personally, I thought it was really interesting! I certainly thought that there were a few lulls in the plot and the ending wasn't as dramatic or exciting as I expected it to be (in the usual fashion of other M. Night S. films). But in general I thought the concept was really intriguing, and it brought up something that hasn't really been brought up before. You can look it up on Wikipedea for more depth about that, but don't check it out if you haven't seen the movie yet (it's a bit of a spoiler).
I liked at the beginning of the movie when Mark Wahlberg's character brought up honeybees, and how they're mysteriously dissapearing. If you look into that further it's actually a really shocking phenomenon, and people are scratching their heads trying to explain it. The scary part is, that we NEED honeybees to survive. Trust me - it's really amazing how important they are to the ecosystem. I listened to a podcast about it once, and it's definitely worth looking into. I really like how this movie followed along similar lines too - questioning how the world will survive... and what lengths plants and other species will go through to protect themselves from threats... i.e. humans.
I also think that the terrifyingly creative ways that people found to kill themselves in the film were really scary. And the fact that every time it happened there was a pause / hesitation, then the terrible and inevitably gruesome self-inflicted death...*shiver*. The whole feeling of the movie was very creepy - strange and quiet, and knowing there was not much that they could do to escape their fate, and an invisible killer.
I thought Mark Wahlberg did a really nice job, and although I LOVE Zooey Deschanel I thought her performance was boring and missing a lot. Her character is supposed to be the type that holds in her emotions, but it just came across as bland.
All in all, the thought I came away with after watching it was "Hmm... Interesting". Definitely worth checking out!
I watched it late, and actually thought it was better than people said. Part of it was filmed right outside my office, and we spent a good week being gawkers. (The diner, and where they begged to get in someone's car)
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way! Man, reviews can be pretty brutal, can't they? That is SO cool that you work right by that diner! That was a pretty scary part in the movie too, huh? The desperation of everyone... gosh. I kinda want to watch it again!
ReplyDeleteThe Happening was very scary for me. When my husband and I watched it in a moviehouse, I couldn't stand it. I kept telling him I wanted to get out of there. Of course I didn't. It was baffling to me that it was given such a negative response. The way the people in the movie killed themselves was sooo creepy! When we got out of the mall, we were so scared of plants. We also joked for a few days when one of us would stop moving all of a suddent just like in the movie and slowly pick a fork and bring it to our neck. We had a big laugh out of it.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, totally loved this movie.
Yeah, no kidding!! It was totally creepy, I agree. I actually kind of want to watch it again now, even though I'm kind of scared to! Ha! ;)
ReplyDelete