M. Night Shymalan’s latest movie The Happening was recently released on DVD. The story — which focuses on the planet earth fighting back after centuries of environmental neglect — is said by Shymalan to be a sci-fi version of Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

The actress, who most recently starred in the made-for-tv eco-thriller Burn Up, toured the oilsands development north of Alberta to see first-hand the effects on the environment. Coming along with her for the ride was photographer Colin Finlay; whose work was featured recently in the green issue of Vanity Fair.

“I’m horrified by the pace and scale of development in the tarsands, and the weak response by our federal and provincial governments,” Campbell is quoted as saying in a Mikisew Cree First Nation press release.

“I’ll be working with ForestEthics and the First Nations to continue to raise awareness in the coming months.”

Oilsands are generally considered to be much more environmentally degrading than other resource tapping — like crude oil. The main issue opposed by groups like Greenpeace is the land damage and its ability to support forestry and farming — as well as greenhouse gas emissions, and water use. For more information, check out the main Wikipedia page here.

Even though M. Night Shyamalan’s recent eco-themed film The Happening did not go over too well with critics or audiences, he still believes it was the right movie for today’s times; even going so far to say that it’s the “fictional” equivalent of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. “I do feel this is the fictional, science-fiction version of that documentary,” he says on the newly released DVD.

In my opinion, that’s a bit of a reach — we all know that Gore said ManBearPig would kill us, not plants — but the timing was important and made the director push forward to release the film. On the DVD commentary , he talks about a particular scene in which the main characters pass a billboard for a surburban development. It reads: “You Deserve This!” On sprawl, Shyamalan says “they take farmland and they take all these forests and they drop 90 identical homes on a hillside. It seems that we’re going into a soulless place. I have heavy thoughts about development in general.”

“How can we continue to think we are not a threat to the planet?” Shyamalan adds. “Any rational person can see that there will be nothing left if we continue to do what we are doing. We have to change and then admit, perhaps, that we don’t have carte blanche on this planet.”

via WinnipegSun

Reviews for M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, The Happening, have been less than praise-worthy, with many complaints “rooted” in the choice of the antagonist for the plot. If you’ve followed our coverage of the movie for any length of time, you obviously know what I’m talking about — but for the sake of those who wish to remain surprised, I won’t reveal here what’s being slammed.

(Spoliers)

One review that hit the net a couple days ago had this to say:

“It’s plants that are responsible. They’ve decided to wipe out humanity and release the neuro-toxin as their natural weapon. This was far, far more clear in the script (and even the title “The Green Effect”) and I’m really of the opinion that it’s a pretty neat idea, though. What Shyamalan quickly finds, though, is that it’s very, very hard to menacingly cut to an evil-looking tree. That doesn’t stop him from trying, though, and he inexplicably adds wind as a way of livening up the scenes. When the leaves of a tree start to blow, evil’s afoot. It’s really, really hard not to laugh at and there’s even a real groaner of a gag-scene wherein Wahlberg timidly apologizes to a houseplant only to find that it’s made of rubber. Really.”

I guess that’s the real issue — and it makes sense. How evil can a field look? Though if anyone could build suspense over a houseplant, it would be Shyamalan. Still, will movies like The Ruins showing plants actually physically kicking human ass, people might be a bit disappointed over this choice in eco-monster. 

I’m still holding out hope. To get a feel for the film, check out this extended clip over on Yahoo! Movies. 

It’s official: 2008 is the year of vicious, man-eating plants. Not since Killer Tomatoes have we seen such misbehavin’ ways from the Earth’s flora.

We’ve already told you a bit about M. Night Shyamalan’s new flick The Happening (coming in June) — which features plants around the world releasing deadly pollen that causes everyone to commit suicide. And now, in The Ruins — which opens this weekend in theaters — we’ve got a Little Shop of Horrors type situation taking place in a Mexico jungle. Without the singing. Or Rick Moranis. From the article,

“But apparently the flick, according to Bloody Disgusting, is about an angry plant that eats people. Way cooler than angry spirits. And it seems the plant has “evolved” into this vicious human-eating state, much the way Shyamalan’s plants have evolved that suicide-inducing toxin in The Happening. Now I’m actually vaguely intrigued by the movie, since it’s high time plant monsters made a comeback.”

I couldn’t agree more. It’s time plants were given the opportunity to shine as the big bad. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to run home and water mine before it discovers where I keep the knives…

We’ve previously mentioned M. Night Shyamalan’s new upcoming film The Happening here on razzi several times. Based on the brief synopsis spreading online it deals with killer plants, the end of the world, and an overarching message that everything we do to the planet will eventually come full circle. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Alma Moore, and John Leguizamo. According to an early review of the script, it’s also “the most moronic environmentalism in cinema history”.

The review comes to us from the site Gone Elsewhere which amusingly quips that the film “makes On Deadly Ground look like An Inconvenient Truth.” According to the author, things start off strongly with some pretty horrific violence (you can spy some of that in the recently released teaser trailer) and then quickly spirals out of control. From the review,

“The script takes the classic “idiot plot” to previously unknown levels of retardation. Question: If nature itself turned against mankind…wouldn’t the logical course of action be to seek refuge indoors, nail your windows shut and try to make the room as airtight as possible? Off the top of my head, I can think of a dozen spots that would be infinitely safer than roaming around fields, forests and gardens aimlessly. Yet, Shyamalan has his characters do just that. It’s completely illogical and only serves to move the story from one nail-biting sequence to another.”

Once again, this is a review of the supposed shooting script, so we’re going to leave our own judgments until the closing credits. Still, with Lady in the Water proving to be such a disappointment to so many people, we’re hoping The Happening doesn’t inherit the same fate.

You can check out the full script review here.

As you can tell by the image, it doesn’t appear to be a very uplifting movie. In fact, it carries an environmental theme that places plants as the villains. Here’s the Wikipedia summary,

“The Happening is a paranoid thriller in which a family must survive a global environmental crisis. The film will portray the earth’s plants unleashing airborne neurotoxins that cause people to commit violent suicide. Mark Walberg and Zooey Deschanel star as an estranged couple who must escape this apocalyptic epidemic.”

Apparently, the earth’s fauna become enraged over what humans are doing to the world and activate a backup plan to get rid of us. Interesting idea. Might make me trust that orchid next to my window a bit less.

This film is one of several in production that feature green themes — including The Swarm and Jame Cameron’s upcoming Avatar.

The Happening bows, appropriately, on Friday the 13th in June.