das Monkey

While I'll be somewhat defending this thing from the inevitable onslaught of hate, I laughed out loud at this. It was really silly.

Thinking more about the obvious nature of the situation, I think within the first few moments of the film, I naturally assumed that they had been there for generations, like some Amish community in present day. Perhaps Amish in the City was still fresh in my mind. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I ever assumed anything else. The movie started, and I just assumed it was present day, and these people were living in some isolated commune. As the story developed itself, I realized they had only been there for the one generation. I never considered that it wasn't present day, and I'm not really sure why.

das

Goldberg74

As long as there have been spaces between buildings in a city, there have been alleyways.

I'm just wondering how all of the elders met at that 'Community Center" in the picture.

Li

You didn’t notice the date on the tombstone at the very beginning which said “18**-1897”?

das Monkey

Amazing ... I did and completely forgot about it until you mentioned it just now. That's weird. When I saw the tombstone, my gut reaction was to do the math and figure out how old the child was. Now that I think about it, it was 1890-1897, right? That is really strange. I don't think I even processed the actual years in context until now.

das

cartman

While I'm not Das, here's what I said in the other thread:

I loved his first three movies, but I really didn't care for this one.

Literally 2 or 3 minutes in, I had it "all" figured out. For the next 90 minutes, I was hoping greatly that what I thought was going to happen wasn't going to happen. No such luck .

What gave it away for me was right after the opening credits, there was no marquee stating the date. Right then, I thought he might be basing the movie on the general assumption most people in an audience will make, then make it all present day in the end. Having seen the trailers, and knowing that "something" was in the woods to keep people at bay, I figured that the oldest townfolk would be acting as them, to perpetuate the fear, and keep the townsfolk in line. When it all came to pass, I was saddened greatly .

PopcornTreeCt

I know there have been alleyways but I just don't think of people calling them that. I don't see too many movies that take place in the 1800s and they use the word alleyways.

And I'm guessing they all met each other at the Community Center in one of those help groups and then decided to move to the Village.

Li

No need to assume anything, that's what that tombstone was for. It said it was 1897, so why would you question it (unless knew there was a twist and you were desperately trying to figure it out). Not every movie that takes place in the past spells it out in the opening credits.

Li

What else would they have called them back then?

mdc3000

Wow... I really disliked this movie. I have LOVED M. Night's last three films... I thought SIGNS was exciting, alive and just a great piece of filmmaking. The Village is not even close. I don't have a problem with the present day/ 1800's trickery... I can live with that... sure the accents don't add up, and they way the info is releated to us is pretty frigin' weak... but my main problem with this movie is the "Surprise" that the Elders are really the creatures...or rather, using the creatures as a tool to keep the Villagers at bay.

OK, I could go with that....but why tell US so early!?! All the scenes with IVY in the forest are shot to hell after the earlier reveal of the elders trickery... it just becomes unsuspensful (unlike the earlier appearance of the creatures in the village, which WAS great) and pretty much NEGATES any of the scares that came before.... he really could have milked the creatures angle longer, it was WAY TOO EARLY to tell us the truth (a lame truth at that).... It just becomes "Some crazed villager" chasing after Ivy.... and I never feel any real suspense or feel that she's in any actual danger... total BS.

Maybe if he revealed the creatures secret in the last 10 minutes, I could have enjoyed the movie more...but the way it's presented, it felt like a ripoff... a cop out.... and it certainly derailed the last 40minutes or so... It's like going to see Signs, expecting crop circles made by aliens and finding out 30 minutes in that MEL himself made the circles and was just trying to get some publicity...

Very Disappointed.

MATT

Now, if the creatures had been real, there is agood chance this movie could have ruled.

JasonF

I liked this movie a lot. As I said in the Ebert thread, maybe it's because I wasn't playing (consciously or subconsciously) "Let me see if I'm smarter than Night."

Like Goldberg74 said, as long as there have been spaces between buildings, there have been alleys. Rent From Hell if you don't believe me.

People have been dying from gunshot wounds as long as there have been guns.

Presumably, the Elders were part of a grief support group that met at the Community Center.

Li

I think it was hoped that they line "I read about the creatures in a history book [so they really could be real]," which was replayed during that scene, would make you second guess what you were told about the creatures. But to think that would be silly. Maybe if the creature chasing Ivy looked different, but it was the same suit as before. I agree, that scene would have had a lot more impact if it secret of the creatures had not been revealed beforehand.

cartman

You are trying to give reasons as to why I shouldn't have figured it out so early? It's a shame that I did (and many others, it seems), but I did, and what I posted was what led me to that conclusion. As I said, I REALLY wanted to be wrong. Further:

1) I knew there was a twist. It's inevitable to try to figure it out while watching.

2) Knowing #1, my mind was thinking of what could happen, and my conclusion, unfortunately, came very early.

Going into a Shymalan movie, as long as he keeps making them as he has, #1 will always be there. That's something that I liked about the 6th Sense. I knew nothing about it going in, didn't know there was a twist, so it was a more enjoyable experience (though I was convinced he was dead about halfway through).

das Monkey

That's the impression I got too, that they wanted you to fall for a twist that wasn't there. I agree this would have worked better had it not looked the same, but then it wouldn't be the same costume, so I don't know how you do that.

A place where I seem to differ with many, though, is that knowing it's fake doesn't matter to me, because Ivy doesn't know. The scene works for me because she's scared. It works even more when she kills the dude, and you have to put together the pieces to figure out who's in the suit.

das

Li

I'm not trying to give reasons to why you shouldn't have "figured it out," I'm giving reasons to why a *normal* person (those who know nothing about this movie other than the trailer, or 95% of the people in the theater) wouldn't have jumped to the same conclusions. The fact is, you jumped to your conclusion for no real reason other than the fact that you were trying to come up with twist possibilities.

Which is fine. I did the same thing with the elders and the monsters. I was just trying to think of the dumbest things that could happen and hoped to hell they wouldn't.

Crocker Jarmen

Wow. This is the one movie I've really been looking forward to seeing all summer. I really enjoyed the previous three movies (6th Sense, Unbreakable, Signs), but I just couldn't buy this.

I left the theater thinking this was the most henious of bad movies. One that kept me entertained and interested for over an hour, and then just fell apart.

There was a lot of things that I liked. I have to hand it to the elders, they did a bang up job designing their creature costumes. They struck a very strange and disturbing image, I would have been freaked out seeing those. The scene where the creatures attack the villuage was very effective.

And the stabbing scene was terrific too. It was so exciting to see the main character, whom we expect to eventually travel into the woods get thrown out of commission. I was thinking 'Holy cow, I didn't see this coming, where is the movie heading now'. The obvious comparison is to the shower scene in Psycho, and the I think the effect it had in throwing the movie into a loop for me was just as effective.

I was trying to just watch the movie, but my mind couldn't help being on the lookout for the 'twist' ending. I though I saw it after the 'alleyway' remark (which yes, would have been reasonable but still stuck out as suspicious), but dismissed it, realizing 'That would be so stupid'. Huge sigh.

Afterwards, there was a throw away line that I thought might have been a better direction to take. When William Hurt talks about the animal skinnings, and he says something like 'It was one of the elders getting a little out of hand, it won't happen again'. It made me think it might have been interesting if we dropped the whole modern day angle. It was just a villiage cutting itself off from others by the creeation of false fear. That is revealed to blindy in the first 40 minutes. But then one of elders starts taking it a little too far, and we start having a 10 Little Indians scenario where all the people sworn to the secret are being killed one by one, as far as all the town's folks know by the monsters.

Not the most original idea, sure. But would have been much more satisfying to me then a bunch of Magic card gamers trying to live out some role-playing game fantasy of colonial life.

The more I think about it the dumber it gets. If they had enough money to pay off the governement, wouldn't it have been easier to buy some tropical island in the middle of nowhere?

Get Me Coffee

The only thing that I must say about this film is....

IT HAS ZERO REPLAY VALUE. You watch it once and that's IT!

cartman

Ah, stating things differently in that first reply would have helped, then, and while my statement about when I saw the 6th Sense the first time (not expecting anything) would apply to The Village (though really, people seeing this probaably know of MNS and how he likes to construct a movie), I still don't think it would have helped my enjoyment of it as the "big" reveals just didn't do much for me.

Much unlike the previous 3 MNS movies, which I wholly enjoy even knowing the whole story, the basis of The Village just doesn't do it for me. I did like a couple of the Ivy/Lucius scenes, but not enough to make up for what I dislike about the movie as a whole.

cloudburst

I enjoyed this more than Signs. Really good performances, good cinematography, and some really really good scenes like the stabbing and the scene right before lucius/ivy announce they are engaged. When I saw the "twist" ending I started to not like the movie as much, but after letting it sink in I like it more and I would call it the best movie I've seen this summer. I didn't read reviews before and didn't go in thinking about what the twist could possibly be while watching the movie. It seems like people are more interested in figuring out the twist before it is revealed when they watch a M. Night movie than the movie itself. No one in the sold out audience seemed to like the ending at my showing they just kind of laughed about it.

Li

I'm doubt the whole "he likes twists at the end of his movies" crosses most people minds. They put things like "from the creator of Sixth Sense" on the posters rather than just MNS's name because most people don't pay attention. The average Joe will think "I liked the Sixth Sense, so this'll be good too", not "oh, that guys uses twists in his movies so I should expect one in his next movie too."

das Monkey

Maybe after one film, but this is his 4th major film. You'd have to be one incredibly oblivious Joe Average to not know what was up just from the film connection alone without adding in the considerable amount of press that heavily implied a big surprise.

das

ivelostr2

I'd say the first 2/3 of the movie was pretty good. I saw it in a packed house last night, and most of the audiance was tense and screamed when the creatures first showed (the girl next to me, jumped almost out of her seat when the creature ran under the trap door). But I have to agree with most of you in thinking the twist happened too soon. He could have done the flashback to the shed scene when Ivy was struggling with the fence, and it would have been better I think. MNS should give directing someone else's screenplay a try.
Some of the scenes are excellent, he knows how to scare peope, and how to make an ordianry scene special. the stabbing is great, the villiage coming back to town after the wedding is visualy striking, and both times Lucious grabs Ivy's hand woks very well. I'm looking forward to him taking a shot at some horror film floating around hollywood or something.

PS.
I heard they reshot the ending the ending a few months ago, anyone know what the original/alternate ending was? Just curious.

Jackskeleton

FOR GOODNESS SAKES M.NIGHT!! GIVE ME THE TWIST ANSWER!!!

WHAT WAS THE COLOR IVY SAW LUCIUS AS?

Let me guess, The color Ivy saw him as is RED.

The forbidden color for the one love. Oooh, the Ironing!


See, if he tossed in things like that or expanded on their relationship, shown some back story to their childhood growing up in this newly founded grounds of pureity I would have enjoyed it more. This should have had more about the build up of their relationship and the less about some control the elders had on the village and some town tard having fun. If only M.Night.. then you would have had Jackskeleton on your side.

I soo want to enjoy the films. they have some interesting smaller stories that could have worked out extremely well if M.Night had the testicular will power to actually try to go that route without spooging all over any Sci-Fi safe ground like he does. The same goes for Signs. if he focused all on the finding faith or the alien invasion then I would have loved that film.. whatever it would have been.

I enjoyed Howards' acting so much. I really can't wait to see her in more roles. I enjoyed Joaquin Phoenix's still acting. He really shined on screen as the stiff silent character. But for the hell of it, after the mid point he wasn't in it. Or atleast acted. He was freak'n asleep. argh. I wanted so much to see more of their relationship build. not just "I know you like me" "o'rly, well then here's my intention to merry you" :kiss: move on now to stabby stabby. Ugh. sigh.

Li

I don't know anymore, maybe I'm not giving people enough credit, but I honestly do not believe that the majority of the people who go into this movie expect such a big twist at the end, even if they're familiar with the director and his 3 other films. Most people just don't dwell on these things.

ivelostr2

I was dissappointed a little by that too, one of the strong points about unbreakable was the time MNS spent on BW and RWP 's marital problems.

ginabean80

Patman - you're right and I didn't even think about it at the time but antibiotics weren't discovered until 1928 and was not actually used in the US until the early 40's. Before that there really wasn't anything used to treat infections, people would die because the infection would just spread. They would have just attempted to clean the wound with alcohol.

But come on PopcornTreeCt, alleyways?? Alleyways have existed as long as any buildings have been around - all you need are two buildings built next to each other for an alleyway to exist. Electricity and telephones existed in the 1890's as did early model cars so an alleyway isn't that outrageous. Guns have existed since the 1400's. So I'm not sure how either of those things tipped you off.

I actually really enjoyed this movie. I understand those of you who are upset because of "the twist" but it is what it is and for the most part the majority of people had no idea that was coming, maybe that's exactly what he was going for and there weren't supposed to be clues like in the Sixth Sense. I think everyone got too hung up on what they expected/wanted the twist to be to just watch and enjoy.

: )