*** Official THE VILLAGE Review Thread

Robert Crawford · 07-30-2004, 04:10 AM

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "The Village". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.

Crawdaddy

Tim Glover · 07-30-2004, 10:22 AM

Saw this last night at the midnight premiere. I regret to say this film was disappointing. A big fan of MNS first 3 films, this one does not measure up. Even if you take the success of those films out of the picture, this film just doesn't work.

There are some good performances and some scary moments. The direction and production were not the issue. For me it was the script. Some of the dialougue left me flat.

The lead actress was tremendous though and expect good things from her in the future.

The theater was packed, several jarring moments of screams from the crowd, intensity high, expectations also high, but in the end just a strange movie that left me feeling cold and disappointed.

I give it

out of

Patrick Sun · 07-30-2004, 10:31 PM

M. Night meets the Blair Witch...blindfolded. Overall, a bloated film that could easily been pared down by an hour, which sadly means that there's not a lot of meat on the bones of this film. This is the second M. Night film in a row that has failed to impress me. One of these days M. Night will make a conventional, but thought-provoking film with plenty of emotional content. This film wasn't it.

I'll give it 1.75 stars, or a grade of C-.

Jon Torres · 07-31-2004, 01:13 AM

I just saw the movie today and liked it very much. I think it was the strong performance by Bryce Dallas Howard and nice love story that just outweighed the bad. I'd give it

out of

or a B. Most of the people in the theater seemed pretty pleased with the movie. I guess I must be losing it when everyone saw the twist, but me. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie, but it's one of those movies where watching it again wouldn't be as good as the 1st time.

In comparison to Shyamalan's other movies, this one was average. The Sixth Sense was nice, but I guessed the "big twist" midway through the movie. Unbreakable was good. Signs was a piece of crap IMO.

Gruson · 07-31-2004, 02:01 AM

THUMBS DOWN. What a waste of time. Dialogue is SO monotone....

One of the most boring films I have ever seen. Ending was no surprise to me either.

Unbreakable is the only one of his films I have liked.

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Ronald_Pellet · 07-31-2004, 02:42 AM

* * Out of * * * * *

No SPOILERS

I'm a HUGE fan of M. Night's 3 earlier films..Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs. Not beceause of any (real or perceived) twist endings, but for his vision, use of silence and pauses, cinematography,musical scores, and for overall "style".

I went into The Village virtually spoiler free, and had only seen the teaser trailer some time ago...I approached this film with an open mind...

and left the film..wanting to almost erase the last 2 hours from my mind entirely...!

I've read it elsewhere..but it bears repeating...There's really no reason for this movie to exist !

The story (such as it is..) could be told in a 20 minute bad outer limits TV episode. The plot drags on for farrrrrr tooo loooong, even worse then the slowest sections of his earlier films. Yes, I know M. Night uses slow pacing to build mood and atmosphere, but come on man!..keep your friggin audience at least caring about the characters while they're doing nothing !

The large audience at the theatre on opening night with me, were clearly restless for most of the film. The audience was not your typical joe 6 pack crowd, lots of mature folks and obvious M. Night fans were there too.

I was hoping for at least a satisfying climax or even a thoughtful or emotional "wow, this part is just cool/wild/awesome"...but, the abrubt end ..when it finally came..just left me beyond empty...

The only reason 2 stars are given ..are..

1 star goes to the haunting and riveting score...James Newton Howard is a God!

1 star goes to the acting skills of Ms. Howard..who comes out of nowhere and is a revelation.....

M. Night has let me down...plain and simple....

I hope he can rebound from this disaster...I really do...

Blu · 07-31-2004, 10:55 AM

Well I'm going to go against convention and say I enjoyed it a lot!
I didn't like 6th sense at all and loved the last two and put this one on par with them. There were some great scenes that showed some fine camera work. The way the story unfolded was slow but built tension along the way.

There were some great performances and combine that with a good unconventional story and this was a very good movie. The writing was the same quality of his previous movies with a slow gradual climb to the climax. The dialogue is slow and deliberate but with purpose.

All in all a great theater experience!

Adam_S · 07-31-2004, 08:29 PM

out of four, great movie

I love or really like all of Schymalan's films that I've seen; The Village is no exception. I wasn't at all really surprised by the twist, it didn't even feel like a twist to me. Instead, it felt like a natural progression of the story, one of the only ways it could have gone. Of all Schymalan's films, this may be the most emotional and community/familyi oriented; it has such a quietness to it and a sense of peace disrupted only by the others, the necessary intrusion of the outside world that will never leave us alone. The pacing of the film was simply superb, the acting was incredible, and the script... at first I felt that the script was only mediocre, that Schymalan was slipping on the unimportant scenes allowing stilted dialogue and phrases. Old fashioned diction is fine, but people don't speak in the florid way of 19th century diaries and novels (see mark twain), and the romantic underpinnings of the background and supporting characters' dialogue really bothered me. Until the ending explained why their manner of speech is just a little bit off, not really coming natural to people like Sigourney Weaver's or Brenden Gleeson's characters (or the other elders). Then I realized just how incredible a job Schymalan did, writing on the edge of the razor to balance between the dialogue that needed to be real and believable for all the important scenes but making it sound just a little bit off for certain characters some of the time. A truly brilliant job that will undoubtedly be overlooked.

And Roger Deaken's photography was incredible, as was Howard Shore's glorious score.

And as an added benefit, Schymalan's pretty muched grown out of the occasional obvious and overt stylistic directorial florishes, and as a result we get one of the best films of the year--because he's focused entirely on telling the story and entertaining an audience, he's never showing off or distracting anyone from the story. A wonderful film, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people didn't like it, though I can hardly comprehend disliking it, the beliefs and longings that make up this film's heart adhere almost too closely to my own.

Adam

Dave Hackman · 08-01-2004, 09:35 AM

This is not a horror movie but a love story between two young individuals whose lives will impact an entire community. The viewer is given wider perspectives of the village, which in turn help to answer everything that occurs at the beginning. Bryce Howard and Joaquin Phoenix are excellent choices unlike Sigourney Weaver whom is simply awful. Adrien Brody plays his character with style but I thought this role was beneath him. The camera shots from the woods looked great and they brought back memories from my hiking days. This movie isn’t dialog driven so don’t expect any great verbal performances. I liked this movie for what it was, though the trailers really had me craving for a totally different plot.

C

Lou Sytsma · 08-01-2004, 11:55 AM

The Village lags behind MNS other movies to a degree. The movie boasts the same strong technical aspects of his previous films. A bonus is the strong work of Bryce Howard whom looks like a real find.

I believe the marketing campaign will impair the movie's performance as it is not really the thriller that the adverts make it out to be.

This is a quiet and deliberate movie a reflection of the values the people of the Village have adopted. I agree the supposed twist felt like more of a natural progression of the story than a Gotcha item.

In time this one could age like a fine wine. Excellent cast.

Ben Silva · 08-01-2004, 02:55 PM

Adam, I couldn't agree with you more. I think this is his best movie. It is much more emotionally complex and intriguing than TSS, Unbreakable and Signs. Tremendous performances and beautiful cinematography. Also, the SCore was amazing, but it was composed by James Newton Howard, not Howard Shore.