Modern Midnight Movies: The Happening

In my first article I wasn't expecting a midnight movie, whereas here I was. As the saying goes, typically when you're looking for something you don't find it.

After talking with some people, this seems to be Shyamalan's first actual horror film, even going to all the trouble to have it released on the only Friday the 13th of the year. Knowing that may be the best part of this article for some of you.

Rule #1 of a horror film: The cast should be made up of B-list actors, so as not to distract the audience.

Even before seeing the movie, we are already thinking about Mark Wahlberg. Wahlberg excels at two things: looks, and using weapons. As you'd expect, neither of these qualities are utilized in this film. Neither of these are usual qualities of a Shyamalan film either, so already there is a bad mismatch even before seeing the film.

Rule #2 of a horror film: The monster or evil is only a secondary evil. The primary evil is usually not a monster, but another human being, or human beings that lack moral convictions. The primary evil is usually killed off by the secondary evil, finally revealing that the secondary evil isn't as evil as once thought, and may actually not be evil.

This is where the movie fails. Everyone in the movie is vulnerable. Whether they're a good person or a "bad" person. The primary evil in this movie is humanity itself. While at times Shyamalan points out little things about our society, primarily how our concern for money doesn't disappear in times of crisis or how people are selfish even when they need not be (or overly unselfish * 10), he fails to recognize any good in humanity. In the end we are led to believe that those who survived were merely lucky.

As for how the movie plays out, it simply drags on. No one is sure what's going on, and what it is they are running from. Only towards the end are we introduced to a truly horrific person, which again has no real bearing on the movie, either. Throughout the movie are disturbing visuals, though I found them ridiculous, in most cases. If you can't tell from the previews, then let me just spell it out better: The movie is about people just spontaneously killing themselves. One minute they act very confused, then the next thing you see is them taking a conveniently placed sharp object and cutting themselves. Sometimes this was too far fetched, for instance there is a scene where a cop kills himself with his gun, then the gun falls to ground. It is then expectedly picked up by another, and another, etc. Some of these people seem to go needlessly out of their way, for being so confused. While this makes for great visuals, it fails in any sense of reality, which unlike Doomsday, seemed to be a goal of the film.

I give the film 2.5/5 stars for stunning visuals alone. As for acting, and story, and all those other things so important to a movie, don't come to theater expecting those.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I was pleasantly suprised when I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kindom of the Crystal Skull. The trailers didn't impress me much, the name sounded retarded and my dad found a reveiw mere hours before it came out saying "It's the Indiana Jones you were afraid of." Overall however, I liked it. I left the theater feeling joyful and hopeful, which is a feeling I haven't had coming out of a theater in a long time. The story was over the top, there were tons of special effects and it was two hours long but George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg managed to weave all the parts of the story together and make it all work.

The following may contain spoilers

The plot weaves together ancient Mayan culture and aliens with astonishing flair. It's believable enough to have a good time and I think that's what the movie was going for. Indiana Jones has a tendency to follow old Hollywood rules and guidelines. There's a good guy, a bad guy and the plucky determined hero will always save the day and his own hide (even if it's at the expense of reality).
This film follows that formula, as do all the others except in this film the bad guys aren't a hoard of savages or nazis, they're ...COMMIES! (though it should be noted that there is a sub plot wherein federal agents are giving Indiana Jones a hard time). The head of the communist agents is agent Irina Spalko, played masterfully by Cate Blanchett (including a superb accent that's different from stereotypical Russian accents in Hollywood). The Good guys are comprised of Indy, his old flame from the first film, Marion Ravenwood (though her last name is now Williams as she has married and been widowed since the first film), and "Mutt" Williams (Marion's son, played by Shia LaBeouf). They fight together as a family using their unique talents to take on the dastardly commies.
The first and third movies were based on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and the second was based around a purely fantastical "tribal" theme (the political correctness of this film has been disputed, not to mention the accuracy). The fourth film seems to take after the second film, but bases it on a real tribal culture and in a respectful fashion, such as gleaning information about the aliens from tribal paintings and the ingenious and technical traps that thwart our heros. It's still a moralizing tale though, as the alien's veiw of treasure is sharply different from that of some of the humans, and there are some severe lessons on greed.
The movie has all the action and wit of the first three films (including gruesome deaths yet bloodless bullet wounds), making the two hours fly by. Not to mention, there are several inside jokes and allusions to the previous films, so there's plenty there for old Indiana Jones fans. There's also plenty of new things for Indiana Jones fans, such as the improved special effects, a solid and original plot, and just the right amount of exposition to introduce newbies to the franchise. All in all I thought it was an enjoyable movie, and left the theater in higher spirits than when I entered. Sometimes there's nothing better than an old-school style movie where good always overcomes evil and imagination and adventure are unlimited.