The Happening is definitely better than Shyamalan's previous outing, though still less
effective than his other films.
Does the film's slow pacing make it more
effective than other films in the genre?
Not exact matches
There's no real sense of momentum at work here; Constantine feels more like a series of vignettes loosely strung together (some far more
effective than others)
than a linear, cohesive
film.
It's a simple but extraordinarily
effective trailer, selling the
film's creeping sense of dread without revealing a single thing about where it comes from —
other than the time of day, of course.
The political stuff is laid on a little too thick at times via Samuel L. Jackson's radical right - wing television host, and therefore not as
effective, but it's worth noting that director Jose Padilha (best known for the «Elite Squad»
films) hasn't shied away from making his «RoboCop» actually be about something
other than a man in a cool robotic suit.
Screenwriter Kelley Sane generally does an
effective job of balancing the various characters and their respective storylines, though there's certainly no denying that some of these subplots are far more interesting
than others (ie there's a seemingly pointless digression concerning an illicit relationship between two young Arabs, the relevance of which isn't made clear until the
film's final moments).
While that «something» isn't always
effective, it is certainly sturdier
than those
other films.