''The Village'' is a colossal miscalculation, a movie based on a premise that cannot support it, a premise so transparent it would be laughable were the movie not so deadly solemn. It's a flimsy excuse for a plot, with characters who move below the one-dimensional and enter Flatland.
M. Night Shyamalan, the writer-director, has been successful in evoking horror from minimalist stories, as in ''Signs,'' which if you think about it rationally is absurd -- but you get too involved to think rationally. He is a considerable director who evokes stories out of moods, but this time, alas, he took the day off.
Critics were enjoined after the screening to avoid revealing the plot secrets. That is not because we would spoil the movie for you. It's because if you knew them you wouldn't want to go. The whole enterprise is a shaggy dog story, and in a way it is all secrets. I can hardly discuss it at all without being maddeningly vague.
Eventually the secret of Those, etc., is revealed. To call it an anticlimax would be an insult not only to climaxes but to prefixes. It's a crummy secret, about one step up the ladder of narrative originality from It Was All a Dream. It's so witless, in fact, that when we do discover the secret, we want to rewind the film so we don't know the secret anymore. And then keep on rewinding, and rewinding, until we're back at the beginning, and can get up from our seats and walk backward out of the theater and go down the up escalator and watch the money spring from the cash register into our pockets.
mjq jazz bar said:haha. Finally. M. Night Shymalamalamalamalamala gets a review I like.
You may say that my attack of his name is immature, but that's what he gets for being pretentious enough to tack his name onto all of his "masterpieces".
Prospero said:If the ending is as bad as it sounds like, could someone post it inside spoiler tags?
no.DigDugDirkDiggler said:If I can recall correctly...
They are living in present time, it's just that their village is just in a very rural location. The marks on the doors were made by demolition people because they want to develop the land.
mjq jazz bar said:
human5892 said:I predict this movie will make additional people realize that M. Night Shamalyan is a shitty, stupid director.
I agree 100%. I actually really like that movie. At the same time, though, I think that, given his other movies, it was really just some kind of fluke.dark10x said:...he has done good work, though. Unbreakable was a very good film and was well directed.
Catchpenny said:I almost want to see this just to see how people in the theater will react to that ending. It really has riot-inducing potential.
border said:I think he's been built up a bit much anyhow. The next Hitchcock? Bullshit....
And that's why big-name directors like Steven Spielberg do the same.border said:I don't know much about how modest or egotistical Shyamalan is........but I doubt that any of you talking shit about him do either.
Attaching his name to films probably comes at the behest of the studio marketing department more than anyone else. They want a way to draw in fans of his previous films, which is difficult to do when one project has very little to do with the next one. Unless he is making The Sixth Sense Too: Electric Boogaloo, there has to be a way to get people to recognize the connection between his works. They obviously want to build him into a trustworthy sort of brand name. Of course, if The Village is as big a disaster as it sounds like then maybe his next picture won't have his name plastered all over it quite as much.
I think he's been built up a bit much anyhow. The next Hitchcock? Bullshit....
I disagree. Primary sources of fear in his movies:DaveH said:I don't think the comparisons to Hitchcock are saying they're equal... just similiar in style. Creating dread and suspense out of thin air and rather mundane- even stupid- subjects. I mean Alfred had movies about the fear of heights, staying at a creepy hotel, and birds (BIRDS for the love of god!). M. tries to do the same thing with people doing not much else but going about their normal lives.
border said:From the way the sound of the screenplay review that got posted, it doesn't sound like one of those deals where they can just go reshoot the last 10 minutes of the film. Much more would have to be done.
It's also kind of hard to think of a decent twist that you could tack on to all that set-up.Okay, so if it's not set in present day....then what are the monsters? Aliens? Other humans? Ghosts of indians? How can you really turn things on their side in the last 10 minutes? Maybe it would be cool if they got to the modern day city and you're like "Oh that's it...how fucking stupid".......but then the city is infested with zombies! The monsters are real! And then in a nod to the stupid illogic of Signs, it turns out that zombies are killed by trees, and it was all those trees that were keeping the villagers safe.
Who says it's up to him? It's Disney and its respective studios that handle the marketing.mjq jazz bar said:You may say that my attack of his name is immature, but that's what he gets for being pretentious enough to tack his name onto all of his "masterpieces".
How about NO twist?border said:From the way the sound of the screenplay review that got posted, it doesn't sound like one of those deals where they can just go reshoot the last 10 minutes of the film. Much more would have to be done.
It's also kind of hard to think of a decent twist that you could tack on to all that set-up.Okay, so if it's not set in present day....then what are the monsters? Aliens? Other humans? Ghosts of indians? How can you really turn things on their side in the last 10 minutes? Maybe it would be cool if they got to the modern day city and you're like "Oh that's it...how fucking stupid".......but then the city is infested with zombies! The monsters are real! And then in a nod to the stupid illogic of Signs, it turns out that zombies are killed by trees, and it was all those trees that were keeping the villagers safe.
Iceman said:the village has stealthy monsters draped in blood red capes with grotesque spikes portruding from their backs.
the village >>> you
Box office gross is absolutely no indication of whether the people that saw the movie enjoyed it. You have to see a movie to make a judgment, and in order to see the movie you have to pay. That payment indicates nothing.Iceman said:The Village will rock. If you guys didn't enjoy/appreciate Signs for what it was then I can't guarantee that you guys will like it at all... but if Signs is any indication then 300 million+ dollars in the bank will be plenty of evidence to support me.
???People will watch almost any movie just because it was made by steven spielberg.. or even produced.. even useless movies like catch me if you can or the terminal.
mjq jazz bar said:http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=1150731
HAHAHAHAHA WHAT A FUCKING RETARDED MOVIE