THE VILLAGE - My brief comments

[The Burgomaster]

Yellow is good.  Red is bad.  Red berries are very bad.  Mix this all together with some leftover costumes from WITNESS, and, yes, you've guessed it: M. Night Shyamalan has tricked us all into seeing another one of his far-fetched and disappointing movies.

[AndyC]

I enjoyed it, but I will admit that the twist was so easy to figure out, I almost thought it had to be a red herring. The first time somebody mentioned that the towns were wicked places, I knew the creatures were a tactic to keep people in. Wasn't far from there to the conclusion that it was really the present day. Had a feeling the village idiot was behind the animal killings too. I enjoyed the movie, but I spent most of it expecting to be blindsided by some big revelation. It was so easy, I was sure it had to be misdirection. Alas, it was not.

Still a good movie though.

[trekgeezer]

Haven't seen it yet, but intend to try this week, so I won't be commenting or reading anything marked as having spoilers.

[loyal1]

There are many that seem to be split down the middle with this one.  I myself liked it, however I all ready knew the plot before seeing it, the only thing that got me was when Noah stabbed Lucious (and I heard many gasps in the audience)  There were a few tense scenes as well where many screamed and jumped.  

It seems many were expecting one thing, but got another.  Many wanted something supernatural, and were disappointed to find out it wasn't....they were tricked just like the Villagers.  Kind of ironic.  

Many complaining expect the 6th Sense but disliked Signs or Unbreakable.  It seems people keep expecting him to top off that.

Ah, well to each his own.

[raj]

Same here.

[The Burgomaster]

I thought THE SIXTH SENSE was excellent, and SIGNS was very good too.  Sure, SIGNS had a lot of plot/logic problems, but it was still a clever way of carrying out its message.  I never saw UNBREAKABLE in the theater, but I bought the DVD a month or two ago.  It quickly zoomed into my list of "Worst Mainstream Movies of All Time."  The ending was rushed, ridiculous, and seemed to be "tacked on" at the last minute.  I don't think THE VILLAGE is a bad as UNBREAKABLE, but it's still a huge disappointment from a writer/director who seems to have a lot of interesting ideas . . . he just seems to be struggling with successfully transferring those ideas to film.

[Jack Frost]

If you want to see it, download a s**tty copy of it, this movie isn't worth a penny for the human eye, I just really don't think this movie even deserves a penny. You can't just make half-agood movie, the begining than screw it up, oh wait thats exactly wtf he did. Don't waste your money, don't even download this piece of s**t. This movie is such a disgrace to M. Night Shyamalan, that this doesn't even deserved to be seen at all. Its not even worth people pirating this piece of s**t, anyone who downloads or pays for a ticket to see this movie is a complete moron. Waste of a download and a waste of money. I saw it in theaters, I don't pirate s**t, but I am just saying that its so crappy that is not worth people downloading it for free. Better time spent downloading porno.

[Fearless Freep]

One ringing endorsement from Jack...

[JohnL]

I guess spoiler warnings have gone out the window...

[MonsterX]

This might be the first movie that I’m actually glad that someone gave away the ending to me.  Lame.

[TadpoleBuckshot]

oh.. we all saw it coming.. his next movie will be about a bunch of stupid theatre goers who buy a ticket to a rediculously hyped and utterly dissapointing M.Night movie called "Suckers!!"  The twist ending is that they all burn down the theatre.

[AndyC]

I liked Unbreakable, but I'll agree that the twist at the end did seem tacked on. It wasn't a revelation that turned the things upside-down, hitting you with the realization that the story was not what it appeared to be, as in The Sixth Sense. It just revealed that some accidents weren't accidents, and shed light on one character's real motives. Not the same thing. Still, I liked it.

I also liked The Village, even though the twist, which was a neat twist, was far too easy to figure out. We were practically beaten over the head with hints. More subtlety, and perhaps some false leads would have improved it. It would have been great if the realization had hit us only after the girl had climbed over the wall. The clues should only have become obvious at that point. But the hints were laid on too thick, and there was nothing to steer us in the wrong direction. The mystery could be easily solved before the movie even got going. Then characters started giving things away, like there are no monsters. Granted, the surprise had already been wrecked, but why blow it completely? She could have been sent on her way without telling her that. It would have been scarier, and we could have learned that the monster was a fake after it was dead. Also, before she'd even gotten far, they pretty much admitted it wasn't really the 1800s, then they pulled out the 70s picture before she left the woods, blowing it prematurely in my opinion. The paved road should have been the first big giveaway. In terms of a surprise twist at the end, it was a dismal failure, mainly due to poor execution. It's so poor, I really wonder if some of the suits involved had insisted that it be made easier to figure out. As an entertaining story, The Village was OK. There is more to it than a twist ending, and it has to be judged on everything. Overall, I liked it.

Still, there is a part of me that wishes there really had been monsters. While it is cool that it was a hoax to keep people in, it is kind of disappointing in a way. Surprise, there's nothing there! It's a neat idea, but a village beseiged by mysterious creatures might almost have been more fun.