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The Village Backlash Thread (Spoilers - But hey, don't waste your money!)

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BuddyC

Member
Ew. You know there's something wrong with a movie when the audience laughs in disbelief at one of the major scenes. The entire film was atrocious, easily the worst film I've seen all year and somehow manages to be the worst Shymalan flick yet.

Yes, I got the whole message about the evils of money and our society, going back to the simple life, all that stuff...that doesn't make it any better. Yea yea, I got tired of his preaching in the last movie.

Even the goth kids hated it, calling it "the worst ending since the Butterfly Effect."

When the credits rolled, everyone around me was in a state of disbelief? "Was that the ending?" cried one gal, while another man called it "bullshit." Hell, the crowd's reactions were far more enjoyable than the film itself.

Jesus, if this guy is gonna go out like this, at least make us Unbreakable 2 and 3. If people are gonna hate his films that much, well at least try to please some of your audience.
 

Sp3eD

0G M3mbeR
Spoiler tag the ending. I want to know what it is cause I will never see this movie anyway.
 

BuddyC

Member
I don't need no spoiler tags, I warned ya in the title.

The entire thing takes place in modern day.

The monsters are fake, created by the town elders to keep everyone in line.

Why? Because they all grew tired of the evils of the modern world, all the elders lost family members due to senseless crimes. The mayor, Walker, his uncle was a billionaire. So they purchased a nature reserve, built walls, bribed the goverment, etc. to overlook the their town, located in the midde of the preserve. The town has no money whatsoever, as they see money as the root of the evils they are trying to avoid.

Towards the end, the blind girl who is travelling through the woods, by herself, is assaulted by the mentally challenged boy who loves her..while he's wearing one of the monster suits. She ends up luring him in front of a giant hole, and then jumps out of the way at the last moment, sending him to his doom.
 

Sp3eD

0G M3mbeR
Wow that sounds absolutely horrible. I know some friends who are seeing this tonight. I am going to laugh at them tomarrow :D
 

border

Member
Why do the elders paint all that stuff on the doors? Why do they try to pretend that "the truce is ending"?
 

BuddyC

Member
border said:
Why do the elders paint all that stuff on the doors? Why do they try to pretend that "the truce is ending"?
To scare people, because one character keeps pressuring the elders to let him go into town for various medical supplies that they don't NEED, but would make life easier.
 
Why do the elders paint all that stuff on the doors? Why do they try to pretend that "the truce is ending"?

Yeah that was my problem with it too. It was just to scare the people of the village into behaving, but early in the movie they stated several times that none of the creatures have come into town for ages. There was no real point to the marks on the doors or the dead animals and shit like that. Its like they just did it because one guy asked for permission to go get medicine outside the village. It was otherwise unprovoked.

There were just a lot of holes in the story. The whole thing is kinda like that.
 

Andy787

Banned
Yeah, I loved Signs, and liked Sixth Sense and Untouchables, but wow, this was a really terrible movie. Huge dissapointment.
 

totoro'd

Member
thank God for the OT forum, I would've kicked myself if I'd wasted my time/money on this stinker (and I was planning on seeing it too, based on the promos)
 

Dead

well not really...yet
Better than signs and better than Sixth sense, almost on par with Unbreakable. All in my humble opinion of course. The twist was handled much better than I thought it would be, and thankfully didnt turn out to be that construction worker garbage.

Movie resonates well in these times of fearmongering I must add.
 

Phoenix

Member
It was interesting, but a disappointment and while I was able to discern both Sixth Sense and The Village long before the 'unveiling', when I figured this one out I wished that it was wrong because it was stupid.

I'd talked to a couple of reviewers earlier in the day and the movie is truly polarizing. People either love it or they hate it - there is no in-between and having seen it, I know why.
 
-god did i like this movie. a lot.

I guess there werent enough explosions or tits for some people. Whatever.

that's what i have to say. i really thought it was very thought provoking. it just might be my favorite Shyamalan movie yet.
 

Phoenix

Member
grungy gamer said:
-god did i like this movie. a lot.



that's what i have to say. i really thought it was very thought provoking. it just might be my favorite Shyamalan movie yet.

Thought provoking? I find that comment curious. What thoughts did it provoke and what's your demographic?
 

Dead

well not really...yet
Phoenix said:
Thought provoking? I find that comment curious. What thoughts did it provoke and what's your demographic?
Well it was. Its definately Shyamalaskfdsajvehgbhiegiyans most sophisticated movie yet. The paralells drawn to Modern day America are obvious among other things, and definately raise the movie above just being a casual flick with a twist and as usual its not about the twist which is something most people seem to not want to understand.....
 

Phoenix

Member
DeadStar said:
Well it was. Its definately Shyamalaskfdsajvehgbhiegiyans most sophisticated movie yet. The paralells (almost allegorical in some ways) drawn to Modern day America are obvious among other things, and definately raise the movie above just being a casual flick with a twist and as usual its not about the twist which is something most people seem to not want to understand.....

You know of course that didn't answer the question. How is this any different from societies that live in isolation on purpose? What has happened here is that someone has decided to take history (he's a history prof) and find a way to wall off a society. Sorry, not thought provoking. That exists in reality.
 

Dead

well not really...yet
Phoenix said:
You know of course that didn't answer the question. How is this any different from societies that live in isolation on purpose? What has happened here is that someone has decided to take history (he's a history prof) and find a way to wall off a society. Sorry, not thought provoking. That exists in reality.
Okay, but thats not really what I was getting at. Im talking more about the whole theme of fear and how some use it to control others nevermind what the cause is, and the whole representation of it is strikingly similar to things we encounter in modern day america, the most obvious example being the terror alert system ---> the color that shall not be shown, the safe color etc...
 
Well it was. Its definately Shyamalaskfdsajvehgbhiegiyans most sophisticated movie yet. The paralells (almost allegorical in some ways) drawn to Modern day America are obvious among other things, and definately raise the movie above just being a casual flick with a twist and as usual its not about the twist which is something most people seem to not want to understand.....

-hit the nail on the friggn' head. you just saved me about 5 minutes. it really is a more intelligent movie than most, especially compared to his other works, and like deadstar stated, it's not a casual flick. it's not for the average moviegoer who expects there to be an obvious "bad guy" that gets defeated, or an obvious goal that needs to be overcome and then there's a happy ending. it's more than that, and while there is/are (a) surprise(s), it's not the main appeal of the film.
 

Meier

Member
I enjoyed it but I was disappointed by it. I had some issues with the twist but it was definitely handled quite well. Totally took me off guard (I avoided anything spoiler-related before this) -- but at the same time, I was a little frustrated there werent more 'scary' parts. The times they were there were handled very effectively due to Shyamalan's mastering of that art.. but they were few and far between.

First scene with the town hiding though and Lucius grabbing Ivy's hand was phenomenal.
 

Dead

well not really...yet
and also, after enduring the audience at the theater tonight, I swear im almost put off going to theaters anymore. Constant talking, cellphones ringing, idiot high schoolers who think its funny to scream and shout at every point they think will be a "scare"

ugh
 

Phoenix

Member
grungy gamer said:
-hit the nail on the friggn' head. you just saved me about 5 minutes. it really is a more intelligent movie than most, especially compared to his other works, and like deadstar stated, it's not a casual flick. it's not for the average moviegoer who expects there to be an obvious "bad guy" that gets defeated, or an obvious goal that needs to be overcome and then there's a happy ending. it's more than that, and while there is/are (a) surprise(s), it's not the main appeal of the film.

But there is an obvious bad guy, and he does get defeated.
There is an obvious goal and it is overcome.
Then there is, of course, a happy ending.

So I ask again because I'm curious, what makes this more intelligent than a documentary on quakers or similar?
 

Phoenix

Member
DeadStar said:
and also, after enduring the audience at the theater tonight, I swear im almost put off going to theaters anymore. Constant talking, cellphones ringing, idiot high schoolers who think its funny to scream and shout at every point they think will be a "scare"

ugh

Agreed. I need to stop seeing movies on opening night because theater management doesn't care anything about making the movie-going experience pleasurable for everyone.
 
the most obvious example being the terror color alert system

-that's exactly what i said when i was discussing this film with my friend.

another thing that it made me think about though, was how they essentially lied to the other citizens to "protect" them from an immoral society. it was almost as if they were playing god, and deciding how those people should live their lives without it being their choice. one "evil" or immoral act is required to shield them from the rest.
 

Mrbob

Member
I just got back from seeing it. I'll be man enough to admit I was wrong. This movie is a piece of shit and easily the worst movie I've seen this year. The whole movie is one slow, boring, predictable experience. At least in previous movie M. Night exhibits a source of paranormal activity in various ways. All The Village consists of is one elaborate hoax by the 'elders' so they can stay in their crappy utopia. The ending wouldn't have been so bad if the rest of the movie didn't move so damn slow. Ugh.
 

Phoenix

Member
grungy gamer said:
-that's exactly what i said when i was discussing this film with my friend.

another thing that it made me think about though, was how they essentially lied to the other citizens to "protect" them from an immoral society. it was almost as if they were playing god, and deciding how those people should live their lives without it being their choice. one "evil" or immoral act is required to shield them from the rest.

Yeah and I noticed that as well in a lot of the newspaper headlines.

The lies to protect society was interesting, but that's been the way of things since like forever. I found it particularly interesting that one of the things that they played on was the how the elders had clearly been there 'forever' considering how old the children were - yet there didn't appear any signs that people were interested in doing anything other than just 'existing'.

I thought it was strange that even after all of the villages livestock was killed that the elders seemed to be so unconcerned. Since they couldn't go into the woods, wouldn't they be concerned that they would have to go hunting for food?

The one thing that I always wanted to know and that they never real touched on was the colors that people were seen in.
 

Dead

well not really...yet
The one thing that bugged me a lot considering how much I liked this film was the scene in which Willaim Hurt and Sigourney Weaver discuss how the door was broken apart after the sheep massacre? Well I think they touched on it by saying one of the elders was out of control or something but in any case that struck me as very odd and stuck out for me...
 

Eminem

goddamit, Griese!
anyone else think Ivy was pretty hot? I woulda killed Luscious myself and hit that shit. Not like she'd be able to tell anyways.
 

Phoenix

Member
Oh and since we're talking about parallels to today one of the things that I mentioned to my wife that kinda tossed the plot for me was the whole explanation of the creatures. This ties into that 'thought provoking' piece of the movie.

The creatures were something that people had never seen, and no one other than the elders had ever seen or (apparently) communicated with to form the border around the village. The people of the town accepted this as truth and never questioned that they had never actually seen the creatures, but accepted that clearly they must exist when some evidence was tossed casually in front of them. It took someone who couldn't see the world - to overcome fear and go past the creatures and get to the reality of the world. But since that person couldn't see and was in an unfamiliar land full of concepts that she couldn't understand, she couldn't inform others when she returned... and she didn't really care to. So in the end the lie is preserved and society can continue.

Is that thought provoking? Meh. About as thought provoking as playing a Final Fantasy game :)
 
-the one thing i want to know, was when the blind girl said that she saw certain people as "colors", and she said that she saw lucius as a different color, what color was he? i don't recall hearing what it was. it seemed that they made a failry large deal of it, maybe not, i'm not sure.

The one thing that bugged me a lot considering how much I liked this film was the scene in which Willaim Hurt and Sigourney Weaver discuss how the door was broken apart after the sheep massacre? Well I think they touched on it by saying one of the elders was out of control or something but in any case that struck me as very odd and stuck out for me..

i think that was there simply to throw you off by showing you that two of the elders were surprised, making you think "hey, maybe they aren't the ones doing this". it turining out to be an elder that was "out of control" or whatever, just makes it convienent and fits along with the story at the same time.
 

Phoenix

Member
grungy gamer said:
-the one thing i want to know, was when the blind girl said that she saw certain people as "colors", and she said that she saw lucius as a different color, what color was he? i don't recall hearing what it was. it seemed that they made a failry large deal of it, maybe not, i'm not sure.

Unfortunately they didn't. Even more interesting is that even though he wasn't dead, she could no long see his color.

P.S. Unbreakable, Sixth Sense, and Signs were all excellent movies.
 

MrCheez

President/Creative Director of Grumpyface Studios
I kinda liked it. But of course, it doesn't even touch the awesome-ness that is Unbreakable. =)

I think my enjoyment of the movie was mostly due to Ivy and Lucius, who kept me interested.

And hey, the "monsters" were actually pretty cool looking. Even though I knew exactly what was going on in the last "monster" scene, it was pretty creepy. Oh... and how the hell did Noah make those noises?! o_O
 

Razoric

Banned
I thought some of the messages were pretty good in the movie...

In terms of the elders trying to build a Utopia, eventhough they hate the outside towns and call them crime ridden and whatnot, they themselves are just as guilty of it. They lie, there is still crime, there is still death and there is still temptation.

I also liked the message of love and how far it will push someone. Everyone else was scared like little bitches, it took a blind girl to fight off "enemies", cross through woods, climb walls and convince strangers of an outside and unfamiliar world to give her medicine without asking any questions.... all because she loved that man.

I can see where some people might not like it but jesus christ some of you arent even giving it a chance. It's really not the movie you are expecting, but in this age of cookie cutter hollywood crap, is that really a bad thing?
 

MrCheez

President/Creative Director of Grumpyface Studios
Razoric said:
I thought some of the messages were pretty good in the movie...
I also liked the message of love and how far it will push someone. Everyone else was scared like little bitches, it took a blind girl to fight off "enemies", cross through woods, climb walls and convince strangers of an outside and unfamiliar world to give her medicine without asking any questions.... all because she loved that man.

I think this is easily the most well-done aspect of the movie.
 

Mrbob

Member
Meh. I think the stereotype 'Love conquers all' is one of the biggest cookie cutter cliches in all of hollywood. However the Ivy/Lucius scenes were the best part of the movie.
 

SyNapSe

Member
border said:
Why do the elders paint all that stuff on the doors? Why do they try to pretend that "the truce is ending"?

A lot of people ask this.. and about this..

The one thing that bugged me a lot considering how much I liked this film was the scene in which Willaim Hurt and Sigourney Weaver discuss how the door was broken apart after the sheep massacre? Well I think they touched on it by saying one of the elders was out of control or something but in any case that struck me as very odd and stuck out for me...

Maybe I missed something, but both myself and my friends understood that this was Noah all along. He had known about the costume's, and had been using it, and skinning the animals, etc. He invaded the town, and that is how they got past the guards during the wedding night. No-one got past the guard, because it was Noah (dressed up) and he was in town to start with.

This was all foreshadowed early in the movie. Noah always laughs when other people are scared of the werewolves... he also went into the forest all the time, and wasn't bothered carrying red berries or what not. At first you we're led to believe, it was simply because he was "slow" and didn't know better... but that wasn't the truth.
 

SyNapSe

Member
grungy gamer said:
-the one thing i want to know, was when the blind girl said that she saw certain people as "colors", and she said that she saw lucius as a different color, what color was he? i don't recall hearing what it was. it seemed that they made a failry large deal of it, maybe not, i'm not sure.

They don't really tell us what color, but it's safe to bet the color was Red. That's why she didn't want to say anything.. or at least that was my guess.
 
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