THIS THREAD HAS TO STOP!

THIS MOVIE WAS HORRIBLE AND DOES NOT DESERVE ANY DISCUSSION!

6/25/2008 2:32:07 PM

thanks for making page 6. I was going to stop on page 5...

[Edited on June 25, 2008 at 3:09 PM. Reason : .]

6/25/2008 3:09:02 PM

me too.

6/25/2008 3:11:03 PM

Quote :

"I can suspend my disbelief that less concentrated water in the air wouldn't harm them, or perhaps just make things uncomfortable for them, lol. I don't remember exactly what the water did to them, haven't seen it in awhile."

Take salts for example. Standing in humid air it is not effected. If they're skin was made of some sort of crystallized salts from space, liquid water would dissolve their skin but not water in gaseous form.

just adding this as justification for signs because I enjoyed it and The Happening was worth the matenee price because it seems the point of the movie was to make you ask yourself the question, how would you react if some uncontrollable disaster were to happen. Signs had similar underlying tones.

If you try to justify every quirky thing that happens in a movie that might not be realistic then you're going to hate about 90 % of what comes out of Hollywood. Just sit back and enjoy the movie.

[Edited on June 25, 2008 at 4:08 PM. Reason : pff]

6/25/2008 4:03:24 PM

I just saw this movie and even if we take everything thrown at us for granted, how people acted after the fact is rediculous. It said scientists found the toxin in both trees and grasses in a news broadcast at the end of the movie, so why are the main characters now living on a tree-lined street with potted plants in every window?

This is the only rational response to the events portrayed in the movie:

6/25/2008 5:34:31 PM

No, it's not.

If we are to take the plants as rational thinkers as they didn't annihilate the human population because they depend on us, then we also must say that the humans are rational thinkers and would not annihilate the plants for the exact same reason.

6/25/2008 5:57:46 PM

I don't take plants as thinkers at all, rational or otherwise.

6/25/2008 6:01:44 PM

Quote :

"then we also must say that the humans are rational thinkers and would not annihilate the plants for the exact same reason."

lol

6/25/2008 6:08:54 PM

Oeuvre, there are already very few actual plants in the city of New York; we could easily remove every tree within a hundred yards of the world's cities without any ill effects. Sure, cities would seem less livable to humans, but the ill effects would be minimal (slightly higher daytime temperatures, slightly higher pollution, etc).

No one would suggest we exterminate every tree on the planet. But if they are really a threat to us then keeping them outside the damn house would be the least we could do.

6/25/2008 7:26:24 PM

That was another thing I've started to think about, have you seen how people in NY city react to anything? They would have BURNED every piece of grass, tree, shrub, etc. they could have found.

I generally soften up on movies after a week or so and I get to sit back, but this movie just gets worse and worse the more I think about it, and it is frustrating because it is stuck in my head just going around and around coming up with more shit that was just fucking awful.

6/25/2008 10:59:23 PM

Pretty sure humans would take their chances with minimally reduced oxygen levels as opposed to taking their chance with insta-death toxins in the air. Heck, they've clear cut about 100 acres of land near where I live on just the potential to make more money (build stores).

Salt creatures. Maybe. I guess I just have trouble imagining a crystalline creature being able to do things like move. But hey, they traveled the universe without ever coming in contact with one of the most basic compounds found throughout the universe, so I guess it's conceivable that they have some sort of bendable, water solvent bodies.

6/26/2008 8:11:12 AM

Quote :

"That was another thing I've started to think about, have you seen how people in NY city react to anything? They would have BURNED every piece of grass, tree, shrub, etc. they could have found."

i was thinking this when they were about to board the train AFTER they told people to evacuate the city

and you saw people acting normal in the background, even sitting down having a latte or whatever as if nothing was happening

AND yes! i noticed Dante too! I kept waiting to hear him say "I'm not even supposed to be here today!"

[Edited on June 27, 2008 at 12:19 AM. Reason : edit]

6/27/2008 12:17:46 AM

6/27/2008 12:41:55 AM

Quote :

""I'm not even supposed to be here today!""

lol

6/27/2008 7:46:47 AM

***SPOILERS***

I just saw this last night, due to a recommendation of my friend, who is big on Omega Point, apocalyptic stuff. This is my fourth M. Night film, adding on to his likeable films "Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" and the dreadful "The Village" (which was just badly marketed).

M. Night, this is strike two. "The Happening" sucked, dude, and here's what you did wrong.

#1. You turned Mark Wahlberg into a pansy. His high-pitched inflections were awful and his dialogue was one-dimensional. I don't know if it was shitty directing or some kind of deep desire to return to his "New Kid" days, but the whole time it seemed like he wanted to be a teenager again.

#2. Speaking of teenagers, you fucking killed two of them! How are you going to break horror's most sacred conventions in that virgins can't die (on-screen)? I hate you.

#3. I hated the old lady. She was creepy as shit and there was no explanation for it, except that she was a hermit. Every time she came on screen, the only thing that flashed in my head was, "is this the burn victim from 'A Touch of Satan'?" She looks good, but dammit, she got really bitchy.

#4. Not enough Zooey Deschanel. You needed at least one character who was going to be a leader and Mark Wahlberg wasn't it.

#5. Clearly, you never saw "Super Mario Bros.: The Movie".

I had more, but this rant kind of sucks, much like your move, "The Happening". So learn a lesson from T-Dub, you bastard.

7/4/2008 1:47:38 PM

okay, so you say that if new york city got rid of all the plants, they'd be fine. and i agree that this is possible, for a city to have sufficient oxygen but little plantlife. regardless, you're a fucking idiot. the oxygen is just coming from plants in neighboring cities. you're fuckin' dead man.

7/4/2008 2:40:39 PM

Ah, there's nothing more refreshing than watching shit stink on the kitchen floor every once in a while. Gives me a new perspective on the universe.

7/4/2008 4:07:27 PM

^^Yeah, you'd burn those plants too. And the ocean produces oxygen, I'm sure they'd manage.

7/5/2008 10:56:17 PM

Quote :

"I just saw this last night, due to a recommendation of my friend"

I'd question whether or not said person is actually a friend if they recommended this movie.

7/6/2008 4:31:47 AM

It was Donnie Wahlberg who was the "New Kid"

[Edited on July 6, 2008 at 11:41 AM. Reason : mistake]

[Edited on July 6, 2008 at 11:41 AM. Reason : again]

7/6/2008 11:40:19 AM

Quote :

"how people acted after the fact is rediculous."

Sorry. I just think its funny when people try to make intelligent arguments and misspell a word that everyone also points out as being misspelled.

7/6/2008 11:49:19 AM

Quote :

"but can you give me an example of something this is harmful to us as a liquid but not a gas?"

nitrogen.


maybe water liquid was too cold for the aliens?

10/12/2008 2:05:45 PM

That is fucking retarded.

10/12/2008 2:08:01 PM

how so

10/13/2008 10:23:58 AM

gad i was just surprised this thread was still going and wanted to see the discussion and i come upon that retarded question...

10/13/2008 6:58:25 PM

In terms of the aliens, think of cotton candy. The stuff lasts a while just sitting out in the open, but a drop of water will ruin its world. That's just a quick example of things handling environments. . . take it with a grain of salt.

It's still beside the point. The facts of the movie more-or-less work, but of course nothing is perfect. This certainly isn't the craziest fact I've had to overlook in a movie that I've enjoyed, especially when this is only important for a single scene.

Quote :

"but can you give me an example of something this is harmful to us as a liquid but not a gas?"

Holy crap, how are stupid arguments like this still going on this many years after a movie? I swear...

Why is the question as specialized as "something this is harmful to us as a liquid but not a gas"? Why isn't it "something that is harmful to us in concentrated form but not in small amount"? Oh thats right, because the answer to that question is easily answered as "a shit-ton".

Think "tipping-point". Think of a scenario where a stimulus is present in an environment with no noticable effect; then after a threshold amount is breached, everything comes crashing down. Once again, there are tons of these scenarios.

But once again, its beside the point. If you dislike the movie, that's fine. Dislike it for the flaws, not for a moment where it asks you to briefly suspend belief for something that can STILL be easily explained if you channel what you learned in Middle School science.

10/13/2008 7:33:28 PM

Fuck this movie, fuck this thread, fuck this god damn movie

stop talking about it. horrible horrible horrible

10/13/2008 9:13:40 PM

i just watched it tonight. i thought it was pretty good. I don't care if it is weird or fake or make-believe, it was still entertaining.

10/15/2008 9:56:13 PM

even fucked up on percocet and sam adams this movie was still shit.

10/15/2008 11:10:24 PM

it's an interesting concept.


too bad Marky Mark was fucking terrible in this film.

overall, i give this movie a definite double thumbs down.

10/25/2008 2:38:03 PM

Gosh this movie was freaking terrible.

10/25/2008 9:58:12 PM

Quote :

"No, it is not. They're simply evolving, like all other organisms on the planet. While far-fetched, it's not out of this world... No, what made the movie awful is that literally nothing is explained (unless you take it purely at face value, which only a fool would do). It is never proven that the trees were to blame, nor is it ever explained how the crisis ends."

I disagree. Although it had many other weakness, I think the worst parts were when they tried to explain things scientifically. I would have much rather preferred that they didn't explain anything. If you want to leave it as "an act of nature," something that can't be explained, fine whatever, but that's not what they did. Every time some "expert" came on the scene, I just fucking cringed. They were clueless:
-"trees talk to bushes and bushes talk to grass." NO. do dogs talk to birds and birds talk to zebras? seriously, wtf.
-that the the plants evolved this thing is buuuullshit. evolution is incremental. dozens of widely varying species don't decide one morning to go ape shit, change their DNA, and target a specific species. evolution takes place over thousands of years, not within one day.
-why the fuck would a science teacher go borderline religious and say events can't be explained by science in a science classroom, especially one who believes in science so much HE FUCKING REPEATS THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD TO HIMSELF WHILE PEOPLE ARE DYING. take a tip from donnie darko.
-I wanted to stab myself when the math teacher said such and such city had a "62% chance of not being affected." what?!?!?!??! this is equivalent to the guy in the leroy jenkins movie saying they had a 32.333 repeating chance of surviving.
-if you didn't have any self preservation, you might kill yourself accidentally, but why would you kill yourself intentionally?
-don't even get me started on the wind

Ignoring the science, what really bothers me about this film is that all of the characters (the ones not affected by the plants) fail to act like normal beings 99% of the time:
-mark and zooey have zero chemistry. they hold the most vapid expressions throughout the entire movie.
-why do the teenagers decide all of a sudden that it's time to get their heads blown off? they weren't acting like jackasses until that one scene.
-why do you need to throw in some crazy old lady. seriously. what the fuck does that have to do with anything?

Quote :

"Not only were his lines retarded but how he said them, nostrils a-flare, were even worse. He had some weird voice inflection thing going on the whole time. "O! no! m'aam! not at all! no way!""

truth. why did he sound like such a douche the entire movie?

Quote :

"SIGNS. WAS. SCIENCE. FICTION. Star Wars sucked because Luke could jump really high, and humans can't do that..."

star wars is a fantasy film.

[Edited on November 2, 2008 at 12:32 PM. Reason : oh and btw, I finally understand the mark wahlberg talks to animals skit]

11/2/2008 12:28:47 PM

Quote :

"I wanted to stab myself when the math teacher said such and such city had a "62% chance of not being affected." what?!?!?!??! "

I thought he was just making that up, didn't he say earlier that since he's a math teacher he can just bullshit that stuff and people will believe him? And in that scene he basically was just like "you want me to tell you some bullshit stat to make you feel better?"

oh and marky mark sucked balls in this movie.

11/2/2008 2:01:15 PM

I couldn't tell if he was joking or what, but it sounded serious.

11/2/2008 2:57:19 PM

i think the 2 teenagers represented how the biological event influenced young peoples' attitudes and actions... it made them go rogue...

and the old lady was just put in to try to be creepy and scary... i have to admit, it was kind of creepy the whole time they were at her house.

11/2/2008 5:35:45 PM

Just saw it for the first time, but with the RiffTrax commentary:

http://www.rifftrax.com/rifftrax/happening

I knew it was going to be bad but I heard it was so laughably bad that I decided to check it out with the hilarious commentary of the MST3K folk. This really is the kind of movie that deserved a comedy commentary. I laughed my ass off!!!

11/5/2008 8:35:02 PM