Rating of
1/4
Shymalan is still making terrible movies!
TommyL31 - wrote on 04/17/09
Is crap-tastic a word? Cause if not, it should be. M. Night Shyamalan served up a royal piece of crap for this one. I went to it because the idea sounded interesting, the trailer made it sound decent (even if it had limited appeal), and Mark Wahlberg was in it and he can do a pretty decent job if given a good role.
Basic premise of the movie: Humans have a basic instinct to protect themselves from harm. What if there's some sort of highly contagious epidemic (possibly biological weapons) that reverse this instinct and make people start killing themselves.
What went wrong: Quite simply, the writing was terrible. Mark Wahlberg's first scene as a teacher in a classroom sounds like it was written by a third grader who just learned what global warming is. The entire movie's plot is stilted and feels strained. Auxiliary characters seem to come in with surprisingly relevant suggestions about what could be causing the epidemic way too conveniently.
Also the only characters we see for long enough to really develop any plot worth noticing are Elliot (Wahlberg), Alma (Zooey Deschanel), and Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). Other characters come and go too frequently to be of any consequence and the movie seems to need more development of side plots (maybe more with Julian (John Leguizamo)). Even the main Elliot/Alma and Alma/Jess relationship stories aren't flushed out. You know where they're going but you aren't really brought in enough to care and the emotions of Alma don't seem to develop even though you know how she will end up at the end of the movie.
Don't waste your money, this movie is not worth it.
