The Happening

This movie fell short. Very short. The movie started too late in the plot. The previews sell it to you on, "What is the Happening? What's wrong with these people? What are they running from?" All of these questions are answered within the first 5 minutes of the movie. And there is no build-up to the problem. In fact, the build-up happens after the problem starts. There is a story of a "rough" marriage that is highlighted, but the stakes aren't very high. The wife had dessert with another guy. There is no exposition and no resolution. And the idea, though I think a decent one and almost original enough, ends up just being the same as every other horror movie. The problem is that it's not a horror movie- there's very little horrific about it.
The lines are iffy and the delivery of them is even worse. It seems as though M Night Shyamalan isn't capable of even inventing a real marital problem and dialogue to go with it, let alone ever having experienced it. With a marital problem that seems too insignificant to need a giant catastrophe to fix, and a natural disaster that is poorly executed and resolved there is little substance to believe in this movie. The entire northeast population dies, and three months later schools reopen. WHAT?!
I though that Armand Schultz had the best performance in the whole movie. (Army is an NU graduate. I've unfortunately never had the chance to speak to him, as he tends to visit when I have other things to attend to.) This is kinda sad, as he is a news reporter with a small amount of dialogue at the end of the movie. But I think he was the only believable character in the whole movie...