The Village

S

Snapper123

Well-known member
I know it's probably been talked about before, but can someone explain why The Village is a movie that everyone seems to hate? Please don't use words like "too boring", "too complex", "not trendy enough", or "not scary enough."

It's personally one of my favorite movies, and an amazingly artistic one at that. So much work was put into the production, so many costumes with so many details were made for all the villagers, the choreography was stunning (the scene where Ivy holds out her hand to see if Lucius would protect her, and all the sudden he grabs her and swings her into the room, where her dress is flowing around like a slow motion dance), the color scheme of the film is really good, the score is absolutely fantastic (one of the best scores I've ever heard), and the story line itself is worthy of being an instant classic.

Now, I do know that in all probability, that it is true that M. Night stole parts of the story from that one book aledged, but I do believe that good things are worth saying twice, and that M. Night was very dedicated to making a "Gone With The Wind" type movie that modern audiences, even teenagers, would pay attention to (with the elements of monsters and suspense.)

So yeah, thoughts?

I also loved Signs and The Happening, and not really The 6th Sense. I don't plan on seeing Lady in the Water, and I think M. Night is going to destroy The Last Airbender.
 
Hey Snapper,
I've been meaning to go back and have another look at this so will put it on the ol' netflix cue now. I just saw it once when it was first on DVD, and remember enjoying the mood, cinematography, etc., but just being underwhelmed by the story itself, feeling like I had already seen it on an old Twilight Zone episode or something. For me, despite everything else being great, I was supposed to be surprised, but I wasn't so that makes the whole experience a bit flat.

But I'll watch again with no expectation of being surprised and see how it goes!
 
I really enjoyed The Village. I saw it in the theater when it was first released. Either I'm dumb or I just got wrapped up in the story, but I didn't guess the "twist" ahead of time. So I guess that might be part of why I enjoyed the film, as everyone I've talked to about the film says they guessed the twist after viewing the first 5 minutes of the film.

In terms of the mood of The Village, I agree, it has a nice old fashioned romantic atmosphere mixed with the usual M Night supernatural suspense elements. Not many films have done something like that since then.

And Snapper, you should check out Lady in the Water. Since you liked The Village, I think you might enjoy Lady in the Water.
 
I'm with Nektonik, I did enjoy it as well not expecting the ending. I enjoy it for being different (despite the fact that he stole the twist ending from a book) and trying to give us something new. It's very unique in an industry of one note romantic comedies and shaky cam action films.

But I could also see why people may have not liked it. I felt one problem for me was I wasn't connecting to the characters. It's something very subtle, but if you don't connect to the characters the entire experience could be ruined for you, even if you don't know why. However the story and mood was still enough to keep me hooked.
 
While visually it was very nice, it fell flat in several areas for me.

First, the direction. Too many long shots, locked, from too far away, with no cuts.

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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!
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More importantly, though, were story flaws. The father takes his blind daughter into the shed where the 'beast' costume was. She asks "What is it?" and he says he can't tell her, she has to touch it. Why can't he tell her? I could tell her. It's not hard to describe.

They go to all this trouble to isolate themselves from the modern world. Are we supposed to believe an airplane never flew over? Possible, but a stretch.

The elders know 'the secret'. So why doesn't one of THEM go through the woods to the outside world for the medicine? Why send the blind daughter who doesn't know the truth?

And what father would send his blind daughter through the woods anyway? That would be dangerous even without a monster.

The story fell apart for me. Story is everything.
 
Snapper123 said:
...don't use words like "too boring", "too complex", "not trendy enough", or "not scary enough."...
Click to expand...

My tactless response would be...it was just stupid. Sorry. And to compare it to Gone With The Wind is ridiculous.

The subtle creepiness was good to suck you in at first in a kind of Phantasm way, but too many plot holes soon form that make it laughable. Gotta agree with chapelgrove. I also can't stand movies where the characters don't respond the way any reasonable person would with what they say or do. Movies like The Village, Signs (sorry again), Sphere and countless others only insult the intelligence of the viewer.

Certain genres are supposed to be ridiculous and over the top or just silly, and you have to suspend disbelief when you watch them. But suspense/thrillers rely on (or at least they're supposed to) the viewer being able to relate to, feel sympathy for and/or put themselves in the place of the characters. To let the story cross the border of sus. of dis. defeats the whole purpose of the genre.

Sorry again. I don't like it when people poo poo my favorite films but you wanted an explanation why people hate it. That's me.
 
It was by-the-numbers Shyamalan, so there were no surprises. Plus, he put himself into the movie as a character who sits there and takes five minutes to explain verbally what all just happened.

We got it when the truck door shut and it said "Walker Wildlife Preserve." Everything needed to be known was contained right there. But like a poor comedian, he had to explain the joke.
 
The Village has great cinematography and great sound design. But I was bored to tears by the story, I could care less about the characters, and I called the twist from the beginning. That's why I didn't like it.
 
I think M. Night will always have a struggling career because, in essence, he started with his best stuff. On their own, movies like Unbreakable, Lady in the Water or even The Happening (sans the bad acting) would be great modern day fables that pretty much crush anything else Hollywood is putting out right now. The problem is that he's having to again and again live up to what has become a classic. Not to give M. Night too much props, but it's kind of like what happened with Welles after Citizen Kane (though Welles was toppled more by ego and rumors of blacklisting).

I see every single M. Night movie, good or bad, because although none of his movies will probably ever be as good as The Sixth Sense, his stuff again and again, IMO, at least shows up to be counted, which is more than I can say for most American filmmakers.
 
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