*PLEASE NO SPOILERS!!*

I am really dissapointed! This had the potential to being one of the better films of the summer. Judging by the not so thrilling metascore it wont be. I loved "The Sixth Sense" even though someone told me the ending. "Unbreakable" was unbearable (hahaha laugh at my shameless pun) the first time I watched it----the second it was great??? I dont know how to vouch for the massive change in opinion. "Signs" was very scary (I thought). But, the thrills only lasted once. They just didnt hold up on repeat viewings. Everything about "The Village" looked promising. The trailer was taut and creepy. The poster was enticing. This was #1 on my anticipation list. Then some asshole comes up to me and tells me what the mysterious creatures in the woods really are (dont worry I wont tell). My first reaction was "Youre kidding! Thats the twist!? Noo!!! Could M. Night Shyamalan stoop to something this lame!?!?". As I read over the reviews of "The Village" the answer comes to me. Apparently he can.

Ah, that asshole who spoiled the ending for me was just making stuff up. I realized this when I went to see "The Village" earlier today. What he said made little sense and didnt fit into the story at all. It occured to me maybe the critics are wrong and this would be pretty cool. I sat back into my uncomfortable seat with popcorn in hand, enjoying the opening thirty minutes. Could this be on par with "The Sixth Sense" or even "Unbreakable, hell even if it was as cool as "Signs" I wouldnt mind. It's not. It doesnt even come close. There are several "twists" in this movie, some better than others. My friends and I guessed each one. Our guess for the final twist started with, "Hey wouldnt it be funny if...". We were right about the twist; wrong about the humor. I believe that M. Night Shyamalan has put himself into a trap with his twists. We know there will be one so we guess. I think if we knew that "The Sixth Sense" would have a twist ending many more people would have figured it out. In his next film I think the twist should be that there isnt a twist. That would throw the audience for a loop. I dont think Mr. Shyamlan will ever do that. So I guess we're just stuck with a bunch of movies that decrease in quality. I applaud him for trying different things (a ghost story, a comic book movie, an alien invasion, a period piece), but how about making them all decent.

Not good. NOT GOOD. This is the worst Shyamalan movie by a long shot, and maybe the worst movie I've seen this year so far. It's not even the non-drama, or the complete lack of narrative tension, or the general idiocy pervading the whole "period piece" thing, or the horrible acting, but the GODDAMN SCRIPTWRITER WHO THOUGHT THAT THE DIALOGUE IN THIS MOVIE WAS ACCEPTABLE.

(to a group of children) "What is the matter that so encaptures your attention?"

"I am not the one who is keeping secrets."
"What is your meaning??"

"Why can you not say what is in your mind?"
"Why can you not stop saying what is in yours?"

"I know what it is that is in your head." (the person next to me said "Brains.")

etc. WHATEVER WHATEVER WHATEVER (copyright KT)!

Well...being the Shayamalan fan that I am, I am giving him the benefit of the doubt. I honestly thought Bryce Dallas Howard did a very good job, considering it's her first film. One scene in particular struck me as beautiful; Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen it: Ivy (Howard) is waiting at her front door for Lucius (Phoenix), absolutely terrified of what is outside. But she waits because she knows Lucius will come for her as he always does. And at the last second, he swings her inside. I also thought the choice of music for this scene was great. Now, on to the dialogue. I was also very upset by what I was hearing on the screen. But like I said, I am giving Shayamalan (for those of you who don't know, also wrote the script) the benefit of the doubt. These people placed themselves in this lifestyle. They aren't 19th century folk, who might actually talk like that, who happen to live in the present day. They are modern day people who chose this life and in so doing, wanted to take on the language of what they thought people might have talked like 150 years ago. In so doing, it sounds a little silly. Maybe I'm making excuses for the director's poor writing, but maybe it's what he had in mind.At any rate, the film was nothing compared to his previous films. Having said that, I took it for what it was.

I find myself defending this film, which is an unusual position for me. I don't think it's an excellent, or even a very good movie. However, it is, I think, much better than the critical reviews it received. I'm not even a big Shy..., er...uh...M. Night fan. I liked "Sixth Sense" but didn't love it. I thought Signs was OK, as I thought this film was OK. I guess I'm the perfect M. Night filmgoer...I never have a clue what his twists end up being.

I will agree, however, that the dialogue in this movie is about as awful as I've seen in any movie. I'm sure M. Night is given a budget...hire someone else to write the dialogue.

Interestingly enough, I just read a blurb in Entertainment Weekly about how this movie is dangerously similar to a young adult novel. In the novel, a young blind girl leaves her 19th century village in seach of medicine only to discover a shocking secret ....

Sound familiar?

I have neither seen the movie nor read the book so I can't offer an opinion on how similar they are, but I am kind of interested to see what happens there, it seems awfully coincidental.

I heard that the writer of an adult book wants to sue Shyamalan because of the similarities between her novel and The Village!

quote:

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Originally posted by Edward Nygma:
I heard that the writer of an adult book wants to sue Shyamalan because of the similarities between her novel and The Village!

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I heard similair rumors as well as a similairity between a different novel and...."Signs"??

Yeah, me too! I didn't like Signs that much, the 2d half of the film was shit.

I finally saw The Village on DVD and I have some thoughts.

First, the only Shyamalan movie that I've thoroughly enjoyed was Unbreakable, which everyone seemed to hate. The Sixth Sense was totally overblown and overrated and Signs died after about 45 minutes but had its nice moments as a film about faith and redemption.

I didn't hear ANY advance spoilers on the Village, and so I faced the movie as it was. And although it had some moments of predicatability (I guessed the major plot twist about 50 minutes in and, though I was second guessing myself, I remained convinced that I had it figured out) there were other things I did not guess.

I wasn't bothered by the stilted period dialogue...it seemed to fit the situation. Period dialogue is often a little laughable. I thought the acting was good (Bryce Howard and William Hurt, notably) and the way it was filmed was quite nice. Some REALLY creepy scenes (when you see those-who-are-not-spoken-of passing under the watch tower was a jumper!) made it worth seeing.

Overall, I enjoyed it. I think the immense popularity of the Sixth Sense sets Shyamalan up to fail, which is too bad. Although, if he stole the story idea, as was suggested here, that's a little perturbing.

By the way...

the novel this story is shockingly similar to is called Running Out of Time. I'm curious to read it now...

quote:

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
the only Shyamalan movie that I've thoroughly enjoyed was Unbreakable, which everyone seemed to hate.

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Actually I really enjoyed "Unbreakable." It's just barely behind "The Sixth Sense" on my list of favorite Shyamalan flicks.

Unbreakable is a very good movie. Some people didn't like it probably because Shyamalan's direction is very slow and he takes his time. For me, the final result is a stylish, clever, entertaining and brilliantly directed mini masterpiece. Bruce Willis and especially Samuel L. Jackson are both very good in it.

Nice to see there are people out there who liked Unbreakable. I think it was one of my favorite performances by both Sam Jackson and Bruce Willis.

Maybe it's simply the dearth of really good, really original American horror films that sets M. Night up as the savior of horror/suspense films in the US, which is unfair. But I thought the Village, for all of its flaws, was creepy and entertaining. I hope he continues to make good films, even if he doesn't end up being the next Hitchcock...

He might not be the next Hitch but I admire him and he's one of my favourite directors today because he has his own style, he takes his time and makes original and interesting films always worth seeing (even the uneven Signs was enjoyable to a point).
With Tim Burton and the Coens he's one of the most original directors around.

Well, it was mediocre. Just rented it yesterday and it was worth a watch, but I doubt I will watch it again. I didn't mind the dialogue, but I thought M. Night was just trying to show off a little. In almost every scene he puts some strange or uniuqe camera angles but he "over-did" it. It took a lot away from the film, instead of paying attention I kept thinking that this was an audition for M. Night. The plot was lacking, it made sense but it was far too short for a complete movie. (The first thirty or so minutes were useless) The "Twists" were interesting and I guessed that the monstes didn't exist but I thought that "those-who-are-not-spoken-of" did exist when Ivy was confronted in the woods. Overall it was decent.

I liked this film alot. I don't see why everyone thought it was so bad. It didn't have to be a horror fim.

What do you mean it didn't have to be a horror film? Look around, friend, all the same people that have posted HERE have also posted on numerous other boards that usually contain nothing of the horror genre. I think essentially, people here disliked it because they didn't like it as a movie, not because they didn't like it as a horror movie.

That movie was stupid It was not even scary do you agree?

I was disappointed in this predictable movie, but I have to sympathize with the director because his intentions were commendable and unfortunately in order to maintain his moralistic premise, the movie had to suffer because of the insurmountable obstacles the director had to work over. Considering what he had to work with, he did a very good job. This movie really in the end was not a horror movie at all, but drama with a strong social commentary. Thus, what seems to have happened was the director's past haunted him in this movie and the trailers used to attract people to make money misled its audience into a movie and something it was not.

I agree with tabuno that it was definitely not a horror movie… but it wasn’t nearly as interesting as it was stupid. The twist was not hard to figure out… the reasons behind it were inconsequential.

If you could appreciate the social workings aspect of what Shamalama-ding-dong tried to do, I recommend Lord of the Flies. It is a much better movie… and is a suspenseful, scary drama with huge moral undertones. Heck, even No Escape ranks higher than The Village, in my book.