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How do you know there isn’t?
If there is then all the “founding fathers” have to do is claim that they are dangerous and that everyone has to go inside (a missed opportunity on Night’s part I think). Besides, wasn’t there something said by M. Night that sheds light on that issue?
Nat (I think?)
P.S. Was that vague enough to avoid Spoilers?
Well, for what my opinion is worth (don’t answer that), I enjoyed “The Village.” Not “Loved,” not “Drooled Over,” but “enjoyed.” There was a little let-down because, yes, the ads paint it as a completely taut suspense-thriller that would have the tension ratched up a notch from “Signs,” when that was not the case. I don’t even think that was SUPPOSED to be the case…I think whoever made the trailer was trying to capitalize on Hype.
Neither is it Shyamalan’s best. I feel that Mr. S. actually took a couple of mis-steps here, the primary one being the order in which he revealed the final twist. We should have seen the girl come across the truth BEFORE we hear the voice-overs of the townspeople revealing it. It would have been more jolting. Instead, Mr. S. told us what the shock would be before shocking us, thus not really shocking us.
So I don’t understand the ones who think this is Mr. S’s best, the summer’s best, some kind of ultimate thriller movie.
But neither do I understand those like Ryan and Mr. Ebert who hated the movie. It’s been worth my money twice already.
I recommend everyone at least see it ONCE, but put aside expectations that you will be gripping your armrests for two hours. It’s not that kind of movie, and if you go into it thinking it is, you won’t enjoy just absorbing it for what it is.
best Shyamalan movie in my opinion would have to be Unbreakable, although its also the most underrated of his major works.
I absolutely LOVED the premise, being a die-hard Marvel (and all-around comic-book) fan.
I was very disappointed in The Village, and M. Night Shyamalan is one of my favorite directors. It wasn’t what happened at the ending that disappointed me, so much as I just felt let down throughout the entire movie. I don’t know. I mean, I know it’s a period piece, and that people spoke differently–more grammatical and proper, I suppose–but the dialogue never struck me as organic. And so that alone made the movie seem to move very, very slow.
And then I felt that after three very good movies, the director was kinda winking at the audience, on account that everyone involved knew they were gonna be fooled in a good way–and then, well, that kind of trust just sorta fell through. I mean, I don’t want M. Night to be fenced in–I don’t want him to feel compelled to do the same movie over and over and over….it was just more about me wanting him to be more clever, I suppose. I guess I just feel he took the easy way out–the predictable way.
And I just remember being very, very disappointed. I sat at the end, knowing it was the end, but somehow thinking that that couldn’t be it. That maybe they’d made a mistake and started playing the credits early. I’m still kinda in denial, even now–like maybe I missed some great secret.
It seems like the most interesting parts of THE VILLAGE happened before the movie started and after it ended. I think a movie that included how the village came to be right at the beginning would have been much more interesting than the “shocking” ending. Also, the movie cuts to black right when everyone’s about to have a pretty serious conversation about the future of the village. I was extremely dissapointed to miss out on that as well. There’s just an awful lot that was left up in the air with this movie.
I see it as a film about fear. We create our own fear and never escape it no matter where we go or what we do. Is it lacking? Very much so, but at least it makes a point rather than being clever for clever’s sake and throwing in a CGI creature or throwing non-stop numbing action sequences at you. I found it as a thought provoking break from the regular fair of summer movies.
Nat
Well, I saw it, and I can see everyones point, whether they liked it or not. I did like it, but I really have no idea why. There where alot of things that struck me as really weird… like the way the actors delivered thier lines, until I saw the ending. Then everything made sense.
SPOILERS!!!
Ok, this is a fake period piece, so the people in it did not talk that way naturally, they forced themselves to, which is (I think) why it seemed so weird. The air traffic thing was explained IN the movie, when M. Night’s character is talking about how word got out somehow that someone paid the government off to make that area a no-fly zone. If you notice, the “kids” of the elders in the movie delivered thier lines much more realisticly, hence why I think the forced delivery was intentional. Alot of the costumes looked like… well… costumes, and I believe that was intentional too, because the whole time he is hinting at what this is. The actual premise, in case anyone doesn’t know, is absolutly true. In the puritan settlement days, there where very strong beliefs that there where “creatures”, “demons” or even “satan” lived in the woods, although it was mainly that no one would ever go into them at night. It was so strange that after thinking about the movie for a bit, every single part of it made perfect sense (like when I thought that the creature chasing after the girl looked like a guy in a suit). Whether or not this makes the film good depends on who watches it.
END SPOILERS!!!
I for one strongly liked this movie. Some have said that it wasn’t scary, and I believe that is not true. While no one in the theatre screamed at any point when I watched it, no one was chattering either, they where pretty taken in. And when Those We Don’t Speak Of are shown, I heard a woman somewhere behind me utter “Oh my god”. To those who thought it was more comidic, I really disagree with that. This was a VERY emotional movie, and it really got to me. It was suspenceful, EXTREMELY well thought out, and made me think quite a bit. Do I recommend it? No. Why? Because this is not a movie for everyone, and it is not done in the traditional fashion at all. But it is highly original, and I think M. Nights best work so far. But I hope he never does another film like this again.
Knight (Listen to the score if you can, it is absolutly beautiful)
The Village was by far my favorite film of the year, and probably in several years. Those who went expecting a gimmicky plot twist at the end of a horror movie and ended up disappointed because that’s not what they got really missed out on what this movie was really all about. Complaining that “it’s not frightening in the least!” completely misses the point. It’s not *supposed* to be frightening. This movie is, at core, a love story. I think it is quite suspenseful, but most of the suspense comes from the love story, not from the “creatures.” The “twist” about the creatures is not even really supposed to be a twist. Ivy’s father simply says it outright well before the end of the film. And it’s not that hard to figure out from the very beginning–nor was it supposed to be.
There was no “pretentious, ponderous dialogue;” rather, there was some of the best romantic (as opposed to naturalistic, not in the sense of romance–although that is also true) dialogue since Kill Bill. The scene between Lucius and Ivy on her porch is particularly good.
This movie is simply one of the best love stories to come along in a long time, and on top of that, it sneaks in a lot of other great messages, such as not to have blind faith in whatever your elders teach you (as opposed to the pro-faith nonsense in the awful Signs). And it featured some of the finest acting I’ve seen a while as well–Joaquin Phoenix being particularly good (my one complaint is just that he wasn’t in it more, because he was so good, but that was necessitated in the second half by the plot). Sorry, but all the complaints I’ve heard from people who disliked this movie have been for all the wrong reasons. They just don’t get it. (To be fair, the blame lies partly with the awful advertising campaign for this film, which made it *look* like a horror movie and didn’t even hint at the love story.)
I’ll probably see it several more times.
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