The Village

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A couple of weeks ago I was part of a family get together and like all family get togethers boredom rapidly set in , so one night my sister rented a couple of DVDs* with one of the films being the horror movie THE VILLAGE . " Ah " I piped up " I know the ending of this and it's not a horror movie " and promised not to tell anyone the twist ending . The titles came up and my sister asked who the director was as M Night Shymalan rang a bell . I explained that he was the writer/director of THE SIXTH SENSE ( Overrated ) and UNBREAKABLE ( Brilliant movie ) . About half an hour later my sister asked if anyone was still able to follow it and at this point my brother admitted he'd seen it at the cinema and it does pick up . This sums up everything that's wrong with THE VILLAGE - Imagine if you have no idea who Shymalan is and you're expecting a horror movie watching this will be a dire ordeal . It's makes a snails pace look like a speed OD in comparison . We're treated to a series of sequences that on the surface make little sense like people burying red flowers in the ground . This all might make sense after the ending is revealed but what ruins the movie - Even if you know the ending - is the editing , the scenes jar without any sort of flow and as many people have pointed out this feels like a twelve hour movie cut down to a two hour movie with a lot of important scenes cut out . For example we see an attack by the mythical creatures then there's a jump cut to the next day which is very disjointed ,it's not well into the film that it's revealed that Ivy is blind when surely it would have been obvious at the start . Little things like that leads me to believe there's been large chunks cut out of the narrative along with characters that seem to be underdeveloped . And on top of all this the director insists on shooting several scenes in slow motion as if the movie isn't already slow paced enough ! !!!! SPOILER !!!! As for the ending where it's revealed that the village is part of the 21st century and has been built by people wanting to escape the violence of modern day America it's by no means as clever as the endings of THE SIXTH SENSE or UNBREAKABLE . There's also a lack of internal logic to this . For example if the younger villagers believe they're living in the 19th Century then why do they wear 19th century clothes ? If they were wearing flares and tie dye T-Shirts they'd still believe they were living in the 19th century if that's what they've been conditioned to believe wouldn't they ? The characters also have odd sounding 19th century speech patterns . Again why would people not knowing what century it was have to speak in 19th century speech patterns ? They could easily use 21st century speech patterns which would make the dialogue easier to understand . Ah but that might make the audience cotton on to the fact that this isn't a 19th Century village after all , the whole film revolves around the twist that it's the 21st Century . As many , many people have pointed out similar ideas have been done much better in a third of the running time in THE TWILIGHT ZONE and without a doubt THE VILLAGE is Shymalan's weakest movie * Just for the record COLLATERAL was the other movie we watched that night

NO spoilers… don't worry; I won't ruin the precious (!) story… I surely am going to be criticized for this again, but at least I hope to reach some people… M. Night Shyamalan is nothing but a phony storyteller! At first I just thought he was over-hyped and untalented but the more films he delivers, the more it becomes clear that he's actually laughing with his fans and audiences for keeping up with his lame so-called "mystery" tales. It wasn't my intention to watch Shyamalan's latest so quick after its release…In fact, after struggling my way through that dreadfully irritating "Signs" I took an oath never to waste time or money anymore on his films. Luckily for me, a friend wasted his money on this because, I assure you, "The Village" is absolutely worthless humbug. Shyamalan once made a partly successful film called "The Sixth Sense" using some stylish elements. Since then, he shamelessly repeats this formula and all you'll ever find in his films are an exaggerated use of ominous music and silence, a very slow tempo and a cast that is overacting in the opposite way (meaning they do their best to look depressed, unworldly and silent). Would somebody please tell the director that atmospheric aspects like these only work when you've got a story to tell? The premise of a little village inhabited by social outcasts who're terrified of the creatures living in the nearby forests is dull, ultra-thin and definitely not suited for a compelling mystery tale. And then, of course, there's the famous "twist-near-the-end" which pretty much has become Shyamalan's trademark. Well, the "twist" is this film is so ridiculous, so predictable and so pathetic that the entire project instantly turns into a comedy! Actually, I wouldn't refer to it as a twist but as a confirmation that our precious director is completely uninspired and overrated. What amazes me the most is that so many respected actors are almost battling to become part of this fake hype. Surely Sigourney Weaver and William Hurt know better than to accept awful scripts like this? Hopefully naive fans won't start shouting that opponents of The Village didn't "get it" and that the film actually contains several brilliant metaphors and underlying messages… The only underlying message featuring here is that M. Night Shyamalan's constantly growing star-status is one giant hoax.

The village was an so-so movie based on an interesting idea. All the actors were believable in their parts (save one), the scenery and cinematography was good, the set was rather neat, and the suspense and mystery was satisfying though not gut wrenching. So what's wrong with it? Well first off is the thought that you could have a sufficient size plot of land to support some 100 people in the middle of Pennsylvania and, 1)keep it secret from outsiders, 2)keep it secret from insiders. While PA is not wall to wall city, it certainly is settled enough to make this impossible. And the "no planes flying over" agreement was priceless - in a heavy air corridor on the east coast? Next, fine group of progressive liberal thinking social workers this bunch is. When they're attacked just like the people they're supposed to help, and the going gets tough, what do they do? Work with the police to increase patrols? Form neighborhood watches? Set up security cameras, buy sling shots? Nope, they cut out. Truly dedicated social workers. Back to the village. As the story begins to get interesting, one of the characters is injured. So who do we send for medicine? I know, let's send THE BLIND GIRL, she'll do anything. What!!! If you believed that there are evil beings in the woods, or at least say you do, why, why, WHY would you send the BLIND girl? Even woods not filled with evil creatures would be treacherous enough that you'd never consider sending someone who is blind. OK, so off she goes. Now Bryce Dallas Howard who plays Ivy Walker, the blind girl, did a fine job - except that from time to time she forget she was blind. Merely having someone look at the ground and moan "foo, I wish I could see", is not enough. In the woods she encounters one of the evil creatures - and deftly dispatches him like a Navy SEAL. What? Was he blind too? No. Then how could a young blind girl trick a sighted creature into falling into a hole? Either she took lessons from the blind Kung Foo master or she used "the force." She reaches the outside wall and somehow immediately knows to climb over it - going around it never crosses her mind. She doesn't even explore the breadth of it to see if it's possible to go around. Maybe there's a lower section, stairs, a doorway, a gate, a fallen tree. No, SEALs only travel by straight line so over she goes. Once over the wall she encounters a security guard. She's not the least bit curious about this wonderful hard, flat, and wide path she's on or even if she's made it to the next village. He isn't very curious about where a blind girl might have come from and she doesn't seem to know. But he agrees to help her get the medicine and off he goes - leaving the blind intruder standing in the middle of the road. Some security guard. He arrives at the guard shack and is conveniently (for the gaps in the storyline) admonished about what happens to those that talk to intruders too much and, in case he was wondering, told why planes don't fly over. He then walks to the medical supply cabinet (which is there for all the intruders that get attacked by animals but never get over the wall and make it to the village?) The cabinet has the exact medicine(s)and hypodermic needles needed (lucky us). The supply of medicine in this cabinet would put a Long's Drug Store to shame. How many intruders do they have anyway? Thank goodness they're not kept under lock and key, and there's no need to sign them out. Presumably he returns to Ivy with the medicine(she's still standing in the road, I guess) and gives it to her - then he drives off no questions asked leaving the mysterious blind intruder still standing in the middle of the road. Or maybe he helps her over the wall. Brilliant. I'll stop here. You're tired, I'm tired, and my ability to dismiss reality is stretched well beyond its limits. There is more but I think you see why I'm less than thrilled with this movie.

Shyamalan has enlisted an impressive cast in this film who all give fun performances. Unfortunately, like the plot itself, the great cast is ultimately left to dry. I'm beginning to wonder if Shyamalan makes the same film over and over again. The films always open with such promise, creepy, suspenseful. Like with his other films this one revolves around the "suprise" plot twist, but this time around it doesn't quite work. The "surprise" is pretty obvious and revealed much too early, pretty much killing the suspense. The film is beautifully shot, but all visual quotation of classic landscape paintings seem to distance the viewer more than bring them into the story. Sometimes the film sweeps you away with its sensuousness, but in the end it leaves you feeling cheated.

The film The Village, was quite unfortunately Mal advertised, this being in Greece of course. Instead of showing the ingenuity of the plot and the sort utopia created, it depicts a cheap horror story. This accomplished two very inopportune things. Firstly it attracted quite a unimaginative unintelligent crowd of people, who were, of course, displeased by the outcome of the story. Secondly it didn't allow the more imaginative more interpretive crowd to enjoy the quite complacent plot and Walden Two like utopia ultimately falling apart the sole reason people never left the place was due to their fear of some unknown creature.It was well done, had a good group of productive actors and a very suspenseful plot and deserves better reviews than it is given.

It is very sad to see such a beautiful movie being so underrated, I believe the problem with it is that it was promoted as a horror film, this was a huge mistake because it attracted the wrong audience. Horror film fans won't like this film that's for sure! The village is a beautifully directed film, with wonderful cinematography & atmosphere, great performances (I loved Bryce Dallas Howard powerful performance and of course Joaquin Phoenix & Adrian Brody as well) and brilliant story! James Newton Howard's score fits perfectly with the film's atmosphere and is also very powerful & touching. As a conclusion.. I believe Shyamalan is a great film maker and the Village is one of his best works, I highly recommend it!

I thought the introduction, middle, and ending of this movie was excellent. M Night creates unique horror movies that are not just blood and gore. The ending made sense with the plot and direction of the film because when I first saw the movie, I noticed that the living quarters of the characters seemed very new. If you re-watch the film, you will see how the village homes are polished and don't looks like rustic log cabins. The ending was a strong point of the film because it makes sense how people who experienced violent crimes or lost loved ones in real life would want to create their own utopia.I think this movie has a strong political and spiritual message: People do not change. This movie also reminds of the Twilight episode called "Looks Just Like You." In this episode, the men and women undergo cosmetic surgery to turn into the ideal male and female standards of health and beauty. Although this utopia is created through physical improvement, M Night's is achieved by shunning modern technology.