The Village

I actually really liked this movie. I feel like Shamalyan has matured as a filmmaker and is less reliant on spooking the audience. I thought the themes addressed by this movie were really relevant and thought-provoking.

[Rapunzel]

I enjoyed this movie and I think Shamalyan (sp?) is OUTSTANDING!! My husband and I have loved every single movie this guy has brought to the theater (oddly enough our favorite is Unbreakable - most seem to like that one the least of all his movies).

Anyway, the one thing that did annoy me about The Village was that it was a bit of a let-down at the end. It was still unpredictable for me - and I LOVE that aspect. And, I think it did bring up really great points to ponder. But, it just wasn't the BAM! kind of revelation that I was hoping for (like you get in Signs for example or even more so in The Sixth Sense). It definitely is less of a thriller and more of a thinking movie than his others (although that is relative seeing how he still managed to scare me half to death several times during The Village).

Jennifer

[houseelf]

Two thumbs up in this household. I agree that while the premise is implausible, it is still a great flick on many levels.

Kelly

Jennifer, I really liked Unbreakable too!! Glad to know I'm not the only one.

I just watched it last night and woke up in the morning thinking about the movie. I had to go through a few more scenes to clarify a few things. I too got a clue fairly early in the movie and thought the plot was a little cheesy at first. However, by the end of the movie I thought it was a very thought provoking movie that symbolized so many things in our society. I think if you put enough fear in people no matter how false the fear, they will believe anything, especially children. To me the creatures could be compared to many radical religious sects in the world that manipulate and scare many into living a life of ignorance, fear and strange beliefs.
In this day and age there have been times when I have dreamed of some sort of exculsionary society that doesn't interact with the rest of the world. I can see how people with such tragedies as the characters in the movie could try such a thing. Especially if the man leading the movement has billions of dollars at his disposal to buy enough land to hide and protect the village from the rest of the world. In small ways there are already groups of people that live similar lives and the feared creatures are merely in different form. Also, think of all the people who have such similar feared boundaries of the "forest" that they spend their lives avoiding.
In Shamalans movies he always makes an appearance. Did y'all figure out which character he was? Ok - if not, I have to tell... He was the 2nd guard and you could only see his shadow in the glass of the refrigerator when the young guard was sneaking the bottles of medicine.