[quote comment=”10780″]@Ajzimm3rman: Oh wow! Let me get this straight… People to the left of the political spectrum think this movie is a religious right wing propaganda and people to the right think it is left wing environmentalist propaganda. Holly shit! This is an accomplishment!

This is funny because people who claim this is a left leaning movie or an environmentalist movie simply do not know enough about science and academic research to catch the underhanded mockery, and the defeatist attitude.

Also if you assume that “the event” from the movie is supposed to represent global warming then the movie really does represent right wing “wait and see” attitude. It clearly suggests that we can’t possibly understand things like climate change and we should just accept them.

But yeah, funny how both sides of the argument hate it.[/quote]

I’m not a republican.
Also, when the guy screams “it must be US that’s causing this planet to do this!!!!!!!” then yeah, I kind of get that notion.

-Good day.

@Ajzimm3rman: Oh wow! Let me get this straight… People to the left of the political spectrum think this movie is a religious right wing propaganda and people to the right think it is left wing environmentalist propaganda. Holly shit! This is an accomplishment!

This is funny because people who claim this is a left leaning movie or an environmentalist movie simply do not know enough about science and academic research to catch the underhanded mockery, and the defeatist attitude.

Also if you assume that “the event” from the movie is supposed to represent global warming then the movie really does represent right wing “wait and see” attitude. It clearly suggests that we can’t possibly understand things like climate change and we should just accept them.

But yeah, funny how both sides of the argument hate it.

[quote comment=”10771″]What people don’t seem to realize about Shyamalan movies is that they are unappologetically directed at the religious right. They keep getting billed as horror/suspense films but they are really just heady art films with not-so-subtle religious themes.

For example, the Village was directed at this particular trend.

You’ll notice with The Happpening that each of the characters has thing to which they trust their survival, The one fellow his statistics, this other couple their relationship, and in each case their thing proves powerless against ‘the happenening.’ This continues until Mark Wahlberg’s character decides to take leave of his senses and step outside, thereby transcending his trust in his survival instincts and ultimatly surviving. The message in all of it is that some things we can’t understand, and we are powerless against and this is something we have to accept.

Of course, this sort of thesis is something that mainstream, secular culture, especially academia, finds rather distasteful, so take it or leave it.[/quote]

I find it amusing you point the other way.
Well if you’re talking about Global Warming (Cause that’s what causes all the planet’s problems and George Bush caused it)
then this movie’s just another liberal lefty like all the rest.

Maybe it’s just supposed to be Disguised as a religious crapola flick!
Can’t wait for the next one!

Hmm, I almost feel kinda stupid now. I read a review for a movie I will never watch. And I knew this beforehand, because you told me it was bad within the first two paragraphs :P

Thanks for the review; I’ll take your advice and avoid it. The previews did look awesome, but I have been avoiding most movies at the theaters and getting them from Netflix when they come out on DVD instead. The extra benefit is hearing reviews long before I remember what movies I had intended to watch. Now that you mention it, I don’t believe a single person IRL has said anything good about it to me either.

@astine: Good points, but then why not frame the movie more that way. For example, I didn’t have a problem with the religious themes in Signs or the Village because of the framework. In the former, the leading character was a failed preacher. In the later, you had a funky puritan society to work with.

Why he tries to dress up God as “nature” in this movie is beyond me. Why not make Wahlberg’s character to be a deeply religious man. He can still be a science teacher, because despite a popular belief the two things do not really conflict with each other. That would work. Instead of saying “act of nature” they could just say “act of God” and I’d be fine with it because it would be in character, and within the framework. Otherwise it makes no sense.

Also, re: the link – WTF? Shit like that pisses me off, and I’m Catholic. This is extremism and taking things out of context and they know it. Also, I think they are sort of missing the point of Catholicism. Running away and hiding from worldly sources of temptation is probably the opposite of what most priests would advise.

What people don’t seem to realize about Shyamalan movies is that they are unappologetically directed at the religious right. They keep getting billed as horror/suspense films but they are really just heady art films with not-so-subtle religious themes.

For example, the Village was directed at this particular trend.

You’ll notice with The Happpening that each of the characters has thing to which they trust their survival, The one fellow his statistics, this other couple their relationship, and in each case their thing proves powerless against ‘the happenening.’ This continues until Mark Wahlberg’s character decides to take leave of his senses and step outside, thereby transcending his trust in his survival instincts and ultimatly surviving. The message in all of it is that some things we can’t understand, and we are powerless against and this is something we have to accept.

Of course, this sort of thesis is something that mainstream, secular culture, especially academia, finds rather distasteful, so take it or leave it.

Yeah, it had that guy in it, … what’s his name. John Leguizamo.
It sort of came off as one of those movies that tries to be good by picking a popular plot: The Stand, Day After Tomorrow, etc.

Anyway yeh, piss on this movie. (another liberal propaganda film.)