The Hulk and The Happening In One Day!

So yesterday I decided to get it over with in one fell swoop and just watch them both on the same day. I love double features at the theater, and I jumped the gun early and went to the matinee showings of both to save money (They wouldn't except my YDKS press pass that I gloriously printed on my 1996 bubble jet printer). So here it goes...

The Happening

First, I watched The Happening. And I had a lot of preconceived notions going into it. I had seen on RottenTomatoes that its score was at 21% yesterday afternoon, and even read one review where it said M. Night Shyamalan had just ended his career right before the eyes of the audience. So I told myself I had to watch it for YDKS, because I knew Wesley would never watch it. The movie starts out with a series of rolling clouds in the middle of which fades in the various production companies and big name stars. The sky gets darker, the clouds move faster, and then M. Night's name comes up. And then it all starts in Central Park.

I am just going to write this as it comes and I will not divulge heavily into spoiler territory. The trailers have done a good job of not giving away the "secret" if you will, but only the effects of the "secret." Might I add that the marketing was really well done for this movie. The trailers got more interesting and informative as the campaign progressed, and it built up the tension well.

The acting was not as bad as I had read. Some people say that along with M. Night, Wahlberg gives a career ending performance as well. That is not true. Personally, I feel Wahlberg is a very talented actor. He has the ability to play a sarcastic, witty fireman, or an a-hole, Boston city cop. Or, in this case, a dorky school teacher with fashion problem and natural leadership abilities. Zooey Deschanel is OK in the movie, and John Leguizamo, to my relive from what I had heard, does an OK job. Nobody else really stands out other than Betty Buckley as Mrs. Jones. Her performance is so weird you can't help but love it. The problem I had was the dialogue. I know this may be a faint argument, but hear me out. The actors delivered their dialogue to the best of their ability based on the characters M. Night wrote for them. It is hard to make bad dialogue sound good, and nobody succeeded here. That is why the acting is bad. It is mirrored by bad character development and crappy dialogue. Also, Wahlberg and Leguizamo are dorks. They are male teachers who get their jollies off talking about disappearing bees and math riddles. They are not cool guys and lets just say they play that well. Zooey Deschanel's character was just poorly thought out. She never says too many feelings out loud, she is not trusting, blah blah blah.

Other than that, the writing is smart in some places. You get little glimmers of hope between the really corny parts. However, M. Night does not hold back all the time. There are about 3 scenes, other than the lawnmower scene, that stand out and give a sense of dread and creepiness. Not to say there are only 3 scenes that are smart, the smart scenes are just few and far between.

M. Night is very methodical in his storytelling. His problem is that he feels like he has to keep talking down to the audience. As dumb as the general public tends to be on a regular basis, we are smart enough to know when a director has contempt for us. I think M. Night is still upset that everyone loved his first three outings (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs) to the point of calling him the next Spielberg, only to spit all over the rest of his stuff. M. Night is a good storyteller, and has a great eye for detail. He has the ability to surround himself with talented people. He just needs to tell stories other than his own.

The Incredible Hulk

I watched the Incredible Hulk second because I knew it would be better than the Happening. Bottom line: this is a standard comic book movie that has a little bit of charm to it. Nothing was really great about it, but it succeeds where it wants to, and sets up the next movies of the Marvel Universe nicely.

Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, and William Hurt all perform well. Tim Blake Nelson also gives good a performance as Mr. Blue. Thought if you put his two names together you get a super solider shampoo named Nelson Blue. Anyway, there were times when I rolled my eyes a little, as you are now. The rain out of nowhere right after a helicopter crash scene was one of them. Other than that, there is nothing too outstanding with the acting or script.

I will say that the graphics are very well done though. They are not great, but there were times where I was taken back a little. The action scenes are OK too. Not incredibly well choreographed or thought out, but they added to the adventure of the movie.

All-in-all this movie was fun. I can understand why so many people like it. It also helps that the first outing of the Hulk was a disaster. Louis Leterrier loves a good sweeping shot though, and that annoyed me for some reason. The movie got dull a couple times, but nothing to butt-shift about. I am more interested in the Marvel Universe as a whole. Tony Stark makes an appearance, and Nick Fury's name appears on some documents in the opening montage. I have heard a lot about Captain America being in the movie, but I personally did not see him.

I had a good time with this one. It is a decent comic book flick that is hopefully a great prelude to the extension of the Marvel Universe movies.