Spoiler Warning
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If my interpretation of the Happening is actually what M. Night Shyamalan intended rather than what everyone is concluding, then the movie is a great social commentary but a lackluster movie. The almost overwhelming internet consensus is that the source of the disease is an attack by the plants on society. That is the overwhelming argument made by people throughout the movie.
But right at the beginning when Mark Wahlberg's character is teaching his high school science class, I leaned over and said that there is no reason for the happening. I came to this conclusion because the discussion in the class debated why the bees were dying off. The conclusion was that some acts of nature are not understandable and that we, humans, will come up with an explanation to explain them whether it is true or not.
Then the movie continued to happen, the disease spread, and everyone started claiming that the plants were the source without any real verifiable evidence - actually with evidence to the contrary: The safest spots seemed to be places that had the most plants.
The movie is a debate of post-modernism, inappropriate application of the scientific method, and the desire of the human mind for conclusion. If that is actually the case, it is a very interesting commentary on our society and a great place to start discussions. If it is the plants just attacking humanity, then it is possibly the most ridiculous movie I have ever seen. I would not have thought it was the latter except for the people I went to see it with concluded that the plants were the source; an investigation of the internet leads to an overwhelming voice that claims the same.
The point that humans desire conclusions and explanations even when there are none might just be manifesting itself in the viewers of this film. The real meaning appears to be that there is actually no known cause of this act of nature but we like to make a cause up to feel comfortable; we need conclusions. The people in the film concluded that it was the plants, so the viewers went right along. Although there were many causes presented throughout the film, most viewers chose the easiest cause to cling to, but in the end the true cause was still unknown. Many viewers were happy with the cause being those vindictive plants because it brought them a conclusion to a movie that purposefully had no conclusion, but this led them to hate the movie because of a silly story about plants attacking. Shyamalan might have just outdone himself and created an inaccessible masterpiece that actually created the desire in humans that the movie was making the point that we should not have. It would be a lackluster movie in that many people did not enjoy it because of their conclusion, but it would be a masterful social commentary.
Entertaining: 3/5
Inspiring: 2/5
Ethical Thinking: 5/5
I will never, ever watch this again. Too many gruesome suicides. But then again, I might show it in a class or make it required viewing outside of class to start a discussion of what is the proper interpretation of past events.
