The Village (film): meh
M. Night Shyamalan was already starting to lose his good graces with me when this movie came out. If you follow my stuff I recently reviewed a film of his that I really enjoyed, the first in a while. The Village was not one of the ones I enjoyed.
The story is set in Covington Pennsylvania in the 19th century where a group of villagers live a simple life but they cannot leave the small village that they live in out of fear of gruesome creatures that live just outside of it. These creatures are attracted to the color red and turned off by yellow. It is not explained why it just is so.
No one ever leaves the village and there are also guard towers on the outskirts that must be manned at all hours to keep a lookout for them. For the most part the creatures leave the villagers alone provided they stay inside the confines of Covington.
The creatures are further kept at bay by maintaining a yellow border on all the trees surrounding the area. Basically they spend a lot of time with yellow and fear anything that is red. It's intriguing for a little while. Everything seems to be going just fine until someone needs some medicine that the village does not have and some of the brave inhabitants want to attempt to venture to the next town despite the dangers of the creatures.
I'll just leave it at that. The film has a star-studded lineup including Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, and Sigourney Weaver. The movie stays reasonably interesting but there is just one problem (and i would appreciate it if you didn't spoil it in the comments in case someone would actually like to see the movie): The "twist" that is the trademark of all M Night's films was extremely predictable in this one.
Like most of M. Night Shyamalan stuff, this movie made an absolute fortune at the box office, but both critics and fans were a bit upset about this one. I include myself in this grouping.
I feel this is an easy movie to trash, but I remember enjoying it - mostly - in cinema. And back then I was studying film in Uni. One of the things I learnt in those 7 years ( and the studying and watching of 1000s of movies ) is to see the positives in almost any work. Now I'm not gonna tell you I don't smell a bad movie when I see it, it's just that it's so much easier to find flaws in any film than to be positive about it ( not saying that you do ) :>)
By the way, I'm not necessarily a fan of Shyamalan. I found Unbreakable boring, Signs pretty disappointing as goes for Lady in the Water. And I'm not even gonna tell you what I thought of After Earth and The Last Airbender.
The Village mainly worked for me in the mood department. Camera, lighting, sound, suspense, setting. At least a huge part of the film. I also tend to forgive movies for a mediocre ending or twist if they make up for it in other areas. In the end, the ending is just a small part of a film ;>)
Alright, I'm off to watch a film on MUBI.
I see a lot of good movies that has a good plot or a strange one that can be explored so beautifully but mostly end up being thrown into the air. This was one of them.
thanks for replying over here. nice to have you.
I thought the movie was strange at best. Well, it made $200+ Million at box office so maybe am the one who is strange
i think a lot of people have the same opinion as you do :)
I didn’t predict the twist but it was a very weak one.
The suspense was good up until 3/4 th of the movie but the climax spoiled it
It was a very bland movie in my opinion. I probably can watch it again but it still wouldn't add much excitement to it
well once you know the twist it is kind of pointless to watch it again anyway. :)
I was excited about this film when I watched the trailer and read about it but then when I watched it.... meh! It sucks when you’re looking forward to a film and they become crap.
There’s a few films I still need to watch which I’ve heard mixed things about, hereditary being one of them! I think it looks awesome
For some reason I like this movie, but I don't love it. I remember I liked it when i saw it in theaters (my friends didn't hahaha). But, to be honest, I think I have seen it twice only, it isn't the kind of movie one can watch over and over again
I'm really mixed about this movie. I liked the movie/story up until the end. The twist wasn't bad as much as it was completely obvious and predictable from the start. You knew from the opening scene what the twist was going to be. I thought that the movie was well cast, although, at times, Sigourney Weaver looked like she was reading off a cue card with no emotion. All told, this is one of Shyamalan's salvageable films (especially when you consider how horrible The Happening is) but not his best.
thanks for not spoiling the twist pal. I agree with you :)