Here are my two cents.
First off, I am a huge M. Knight Shyamalan fan. I loved the Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and The Signs. Both movies always provided me a few shocks and twists alongside several provoking ideas about human nature. Not only are his movies great, but each time he comes out with a new one, you are dealing with a smarter audience who is not only trying to figure out your trademark twist before you reveal it, but also are expecting to be "shocked" once again, perhaps to a higher degree since after each movie the viewer are sort of building an M. Knight callus. The M. Knight callus is why a good movie like "The Others" couldn't really have the impact because M. Knight already exposed that sensation to the audience.
Internet " nerds/critics" are always going to attack something out there. I just think it's ridiculous to call something like the village "a stupid concept", "terribly written", or "a waste of 9 dollars". Hyperbole+ignorance = does not make your opinion credible to me. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but some of you need a reality check.
But now to the village.
I can't say I love the movie as much as the other three, but I definitely liked it. The other movies have had multiple viewings and time of me thinking about to them to get to their respected levels. I think The Village was a great movie. One of the most profound concepts to me is that there is no way to get rid of crime and evil. You can put people in a secluded simple environment without money which was considered the strongest root of evil, but greed is only one of the many human emotions that cause us to do inordinary things. Knight concentrates on people's reaction to love in several interesting ways. Remember how Ivy figured out Lucious loved her, because he would touch other people without thinking about it (grabbing their hand), but he would not touch Ivy because he was scared she would figure out he was attracted to her. This same example is carried on with Lucious' mom and Ivy's father. Noah of course kills Lucious (a scene no one saw coming) because of jealousy. This scene is very powerful because it shows you human nature creates sin. You can take away the materialistic nature of American society, but you can't take away jealous rage. Lucious was depicted as a kind and friendly person to Noah, but the second Noah finds out about Lucious and Ivy getting married, his jealousy takes over and causes him to murder (attempted) Lucious. None of these are new concepts of humanism that Knight is handfeeding us, but the way he shows us picture by picture, to me are like using familiar words in poetic sentences. Was noah going to hurt ivy at the end? I don't think anyone could say no. We are not 100% sure of his mannerism when he bears that suit, he is also still enfuriated by Ivy's actions. The village was a refuge to these people who suffered in the outside world. I can't imagine how someone functions in society if they found their loved one violently murdered in their house. The thing that makes this the usual M. Knight fare, is that it finds a way to realistically (by hollywood measures) to put your conscious in that world.
I'm thinking about the movie still. I can't wait to watch it again.
By the way. The next M. Knight movie after Signs I swore was the one he was writing about ouiji boards. I bet thats the next one.