I just saw The Village

[bsu legato]

Aybody heard this?

The Pillage

If you saw M. Night Shyamalan's The Village this weekend, chances are you had some room in the theater to stretch out. The movie, which opened to bigger than expected numbers last week (north of 50 mil), kind of plummeted in its second week at the box office. You probably also had extra room in the theater because you couldn't get a date and you have no friends, but that's really your problem, not M. Night's. Anyway, word quickly spread about the contents contained within The Village, and people (well, some of them anyway) stayed away. The film still managed to grab the number two spot - behind Mann's Collateral - and has netted more than 85 million dollars so far. But make no mistake, the film is shaping up to be a blemish on Shyamalan's otherwise noteworthy career. And I can say that because I am a huge Wide Awake fan.

To make matters worse, Shyamalan, who also wrote The Village's porous screenplay, has been accused of lifting the plot for his movie from a children's novel. The book, called Running Out of Time, shares some interesting parallels with the flick, for sure. However, one thing the two pieces don't share? Well, the book was nominated for some awards. Anyway, here's the damning plot description for the book from the School Library Journal. WARNING: it gives away one of the film's twists (a twist, by now, that has been given away more times than Elizabeth Taylor. I thank you.):

"This absorbing novel develops an unusual premise into the gripping story of a young girl's efforts to save her family and friends from a deadly disease. Jessie Keyser, 13, believes that the year is 1840. In truth, she and her family, along with a small group of others, live in a reconstructed village viewed by unseen modern tourists and used as an experimental site by unethical scientists. Jessie discovers the truth when her mother asks her to leave the village and seek medical help for the diphtheria epidemic that has struck the children of the community. Jessie must cope with the shock of her discovery; her unfamiliarity with everyday phenomena such as cars, telephones, and television; and the unscrupulous men who are manipulating the villagers."

Oh, snap! Well, to be fair to M. Night, this idea isn't the most original idea to begin with. The author of the kiddie tome, Margaret Peterson Haddix, didn't exactly come up with the people-out-of-sync with time premise. Still, publisher Simon & Schuster is "reviewing its legal options", which is just more bad news for The Village. To add insult to gaping wound, someone scrawled I see Village People on its stand-up display at my local theater.

[EXO]

I guess I don't have to fight the crowd when the movie comes out on DVD.

Seriously though, MNS has to get over the twists at the end. It just distracts most people and they're too busy guessing the end. I can respect people not liking this movie. I think a people were lead to think it was a certain type when it wasn't.

[Sundown]

Aybody heard this?

The Pillage

*cackles*

I see Villiage People. Priceless.

But to be fair, I still think it's one of Shamalayan's better efforts as a whole. Sixth Sense was great for what it was. Unbreakable was okay, somewhat unsatisfying, but fun for me as a comic fan. Signs was a huge letdown with a contrived ending that screamed of trying too hard to be a Shamalyan flick for a movie that could have been much better otherwise... even more of a dissapointment since I love a good UFO invasion/X-Files-esque pic. Now the Villiage was actually coherent as a movie, and made the parts in the middle make more sense, where one could go back and spot the hints and bits of foreshadowing and reinterpret the elders' thoughts and actions after the ending was revealed. There's more meat to it than Signs, I say.

I'm guessing that it's being less well received simply because people are tired of his "formula", and pretty much had enough with Signs. I do think it's a more solid and coherent picture than the rest of his other movies, Sixth Sense excluded.

Shamalayan needs to watch Momento, Unusual Suspects, and Primal Fear to understand again what a good surprise is. It's one where the audience thinks they know all the pieces, and that the story's been laid clearly before them-- that the story could resolve without the surprise and that everything appears in plain view-- before the twist is released on them.

But I'm betting if the Usual Suspects was made by Shamalayan and released today, it would get some degree of panning, just because the audience is expecting some sort of twist and wouldn't be amused by it as much as they would be annoyed. Best thing Shamalyan could do for his movies is to start taking his name off of them, so his films get watched without expectations and preconceived notions.

But that means he needs to start taking himself out of his own films, or maybe hire Kumar to play "him".

-Al

[Blaine23]

Well, the absolute worst thing about "the big surprise twist ending" is when you know that there is one coming. Even if you don't know exactly what it is - if your friend says," dude, that movie has such a surprise ending" - if you've got any sense you'll figure it out before it happens. This is assuming the surprise makes sense, is foreshadowed, etc.

The problem with Shyamalan - we all know something's gonna happen at the end of the movie. It's never a surprise. Each time it's less and less successful and that's just the basic law of diminishing returns.

Want to surprise folks, M. Night? Make a movie a movie that plays straight - all the way to the end. No one will ever see it coming.

[uminoken]

Well, all the critics hated it, I and my friends liked it. Yeah it kinda falls apart when you know the twists, but personally I think he's much better at character-writing than plot twists. Usually you can figure out several (hundred) holes in his plots, but he's got some nice character moments.... The trailers and posters made it seem like a horror movie, so when the love story shows up people wonder where's the action? Just start thinking of all his movies as slow character dramas with suspensful elements

[Sundown]

This is assuming the surprise makes sense, is foreshadowed, etc.

That's assuming a lot, given Signs.

Want to surprise folks, M. Night?  Make a movie a movie that plays straight - all the way to the end.  No one will ever see it coming. 

Exactly. Or if he's bent on a surprise, for once, make a film that can resolve well enoughon its own-- that doesn't even need the surprise to be a decent flick. Then pop it in at the end, for shock value. Like Identity, Momento, or Primal Fear. The audience'll feel they got an extra something out of the film. It beats banking only on the twist, and having them feel duped.

But this assumes that Shamalayan can write a complete and resolving movie without twists. Which has yet to be proven, even 4 or 5 mainstream movies into his career.

-Al

[Dangard Ace]

I liked it. Wasn't groundbreaking or such(plus I refused to pay for a PG-13 AvP) but it was entertaining.

.....and Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) was cute.

[Radd]

I loved Unbreakable, and liked Sixth Sense a whole lot, however The Village left a terrible taste it my mouth. I would go so far as to say I felt unclean after viewing it.

I guessed the "surprise ending" about 5-15 minutes into the movie, and was left with nothing but the stiff, forced performances of the cast (many good actors, but performing very poorly in this movie), a lacking script, and only one moment that was even close to a fright, and that moment had nothing to do with monsters or anything at all.

Me and my girlfriend agreed that the laughs were the only thing that made this movie bareable, perfect modern MST3k material.

I'm still not certain if King Arthur is a good movie, or if it only felt that way because it played immeadiately after The Village at the drive in.

[justvinnie]

bleh, what was the plot twisted again? Without reading spoilers or anything I somehow knew what the plot twist was going into the movie. After a few minutes it was confirmed. Whoever said Shyamalan needs a new gimmick is right. When the audience can guess the gimmick from a fake docu-propaganda piece, the director is losing it. I loved Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense. Signs and The Village are too predictable because we come to expect it. I am also annoyed by his cameos. It seems so unnecessary and everytime I see him in the movie, it seems so out of place.

vinnie

[Akilae]

I saw this right about the time it came out on video and I just watched it again recently.

The first time I saw it, I wasn't too impressed. But I think part of the problem was the story was heavily advertised as a horror movie. Maybe the problem isn't the MKS signature twist, maybe the problem is the fact that Sixth Sense was essentially a horror movie and all his films are treated and advertised as such.

QFT. I've had quite a hard time trying to convince friends that MKS is not a horror director. Unbreakable is more about believing in yourself, Signs is more about the power of belief in general, The Village was about the power of love/facing the unknown, etc... it's more an accident that the Sixth Sense was a ghost movie (note, not horror movie... MKS does not go out of his way to set you up to piss in your pants).

As for Signs, I think the whole movie can be contained in one quote:

"People break down into two groups when they experience something lucky. Group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in Group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation isn't fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in the Group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope. See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?"

[Hoptimus]

I never thought of M. Night as a horror director. I see him as the modern Hitchcock. He likes to tell a good yarn with some suspense and a nice twist. Sometimes its easy to see and sometimes it gets you. Overall I have enjoyed all of his films but Unbreakable is my favorite.

[Seven]

While I can appreciate the fact that the guy is one of the few directors in Hollywood that goes against convention and makes movies to tell a story (as opposed to studio directors that just make franchise films or popcorn films), I just had to roll my eyes when I read an excerpt of his book "The Man Who Heard Voices", which was basically very angsty and emo and tells about his constant battle with self doubt as a director and a person. It just leapt out to me how much of a whiny drama queen the guy is.

I do like how he adheres to a central theme in his stories and is great at making the characters come across as real emotional people. Not many directors can achieve that today.

Out of all his movies, the one that I like most conceptually and thematic wise would be Signs. Sure there are plot holes, but you can poke holes in ANY movie made today. Everything in Signs tied together very well and the montage at the very end that Gibson has in front of the alien helps the audience put all the threads together.

On a tangent but still about a director, I just had a chance to watch Ikiru from Akira Kurosawa. Critics rate this film higher than the much more popular Seven Samurai. I didn't realize why until I finally watched it on IFC. It is indeed a great film and very personal as well. I highly recommend it to the Kurosawa fans out there that have watched all his Jidai Geki (samurai period) films and want to watch something else he created.

[Wes]

On a tangent but still about a director, I just had a chance to watch Ikiru from Akira Kurosawa. Critics rate this film higher than the much more popular Seven Samurai. I didn't realize why until I finally watched it on IFC. It is indeed a great film and very personal as well. I highly recommend it to the Kurosawa fans out there that have watched all his Jidai Geki (samurai period) films and want to watch something else he created.

I've been meaning to get my stepdad to watch that - he was a town manager a few years ago.

I think this guy's stuff was summed up best by Robot Chicken. WHATATWIST!

[Kin]

I'v got excited after watching a few trailers... but after I watched the movie I got very dissapointed.. felt just like watchin babes and suddenly they turn into ugly fat men at the end...

[Max Jenius]

I had nothing really against the movie other than whispering the twist to my wife in the first 10 minutes (I guessed).

I mean, it was ok... but it left me feeling kind of empty at the end. I think that with some minor tweaks it would have been a lot better. Surprisingly, when I think about it; it's in the top 2 Shymalan movies for me (the other being Unbreakable).

[Blaine23]

Enjoyed it then, enjoy it now.

If you took Shyamalan's name off of the film, people would probably be kinder to it. But the guy has a pretty polarizing effect on movie fans. And his goofy behavior (the way he talks about himself, his work, that wacky book) makes it not worth the effort to stick up for his films, most of the time.