Author Topic: The Village *Major Spoilers*  (Read 2605 times)

42

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The Village *Major Spoilers*
« on: July 30, 2004, 04:46:10 PM »
The atmosphere of this movie just rocks.

I guessed the surprise twist with Adrian Brody's character early on, but it was still cool just anticipating if I was right.

The twist about "the Towns" didn't guess, which made it very cool when I was revealed.

I guess Mr. Shyamalan has a lot to live up too. I think everyone in the theater was trying to guess what the surprise ending would be first. I think he did a good job of playing up to this expectation. Course, I think he needs to make a few more film without the surprise to get people to drop their expectations again.

Also, I think I'm going to be afraid of bright reds for a few days.
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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2004, 04:48:10 PM »
aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


WHY DIDN"T ANYONE STOP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, yeah, sure you POSTED Spoilers, but I read the spoiler thread for SPidey first. and uh.. CRAP.

Yes, I know I have no one to blame but myself, esp since it was Shyamalan.  But I just... I'm weak.

I'll still go see it, and I only scanned the post, so maybe I won't understand.

42

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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2004, 04:58:31 PM »
42 lets out an evil laugh. Mwahahahaha.
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42

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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2004, 07:24:57 PM »
So the question I have after talking with Spriggan:

What are the dates on the Tombstone at the start of the film? Spriggan and I have differing opinions about this.
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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2004, 01:34:52 AM »
Well we figured out I was wrong, but I had the missfortune of getting a major spoiler from a review on tv.  But that aside, it was an ok movie, probaly my least favorite of his.  I had a real hard time grasping everything he wanted me to, I knew what the "twist" was at the end going into the theater.  But he took a lot of liberties with the audience, ones that were pretty streached thin.

I think RT has it pegged at 45%, it's deffinatly a 40%-50% movie.

What I'm surpriesed about is how much some critics hate this move as well as Shyamalan.  Slate calles him a villiage idiot becsaue he refuses to leave his own little world (ie he dosen't live in Hollywood), his movies (besides six sense) all are bombs, and he purposley dumbs things down.  Of course I love how movie crits love to imply that anyone who likes something they don't are simpletons.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2004, 01:36:15 AM by Spriggan »
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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2004, 06:29:23 AM »
One of the first times I've disagreed with RT.  I thought it was about an 85%.  However, critics have responded poorly to Shyamalan since Sixth Sense.  (Which is, in my opinion, his least-impressive movie.)

This one had excellent character development and impressive visuals.  The plot was probably the weakest of the four--though Signs wasn't up there on plot either.  However, the thematic material of this one was far more interesting than that of Signs.  
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42

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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #6 on: July 31, 2004, 06:44:17 PM »
See I liked this one more than Signs.

I now think that Shyamalan needs to make a big-budget scifi film that doesn't have his signiture twist. I think this would help throw off his audience and give him more longevity in the industry.

I do agree with a lot of critics that are getting tired of him making movies that are all very similar in feel and plotting. It's making his work predictible and passe.
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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2004, 12:35:33 AM »
I would like to say that I resisted the temptation to read this thread until after seeing the movie.

And now all I can say is, that was a very weird movie.  Good I think, but weird.
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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2004, 02:04:36 PM »
Quote
I now think that Shyamalan needs to make a big-budget scifi film that doesn't have his signature twist. I think this would help throw off his audience and give him more longevity in the industry.


I agree completely, 42.  Excellent assessment.  Scott Card learned this after ENDER'S GAME.  If every book focused around a powerful twist, everyone would only look for that, instead of paying attention to the rest of the work.
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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #9 on: August 11, 2004, 12:06:36 AM »
Finally got around to watching this tonight.  After a few weeks of dodging spoilers I had "The Towns" twist figured out by about half way through.   Wasn't really expecting the Adian Brody twist.

I'm a little disappointed.  I'm an M.Night fan, and though the atmosphere is pretty cool (thought not quite as utterly oozing as Sleepy Hollow) I just didn't like the story that much.

I'll have to see it again though.

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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #10 on: August 14, 2004, 02:26:44 AM »
42,
Dates on the tombstone: 1890-1897

I just saw the movie and liked it.  The part at the end freaked me out cause I knew it was a real person (and I thought they just didn't want her to leave the village).
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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #11 on: August 14, 2004, 10:05:31 AM »
Saw it last night. Don't know how to rate it, since I had been given the spoiler. Plus I'm a half hour late. Will try to post when I get online later this morning.
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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #12 on: August 14, 2004, 12:34:16 PM »
Quote
42,
Dates on the tombstone: 1890-1897


That was what Eric Snider had issues with, the fact that the movie lied to us with those dates. But really it wasn't that, the villiagers were lying the whole time, so it didn't bother me.

Quote
I just saw the movie and liked it.  The part at the end freaked me out cause I knew it was a real person (and I thought they just didn't want her to leave the village).


Ditto. I figured "oh the crazy Elder doesn't want her to get the medicine, so he's trying to scare her back."
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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #13 on: August 14, 2004, 12:43:01 PM »
Okay, so I've had some time to think about it.

It took me a long time to get into it, and I don't know if it was because they didn't set it up well, or if it was because I already knew the premise (a little of both, I think). The red creatures threw me off, because the book I read didn't have such things (all it has was the adults telling the children they couldn't go in the woods, but all the kids were younger, and the premise was that they lived in a Colonial House/Truman Show-type environment, where people would come and watch them live without the kids knowing what was up).

So I was still freaked out by the red things, and I can't BELIEVE they didn't do anything about the psychotic killer in their midst. They kind of just hoped it would go away, it seemed, but sheesh, isn't this what they were trying to prevent? Obviously their little experiment didn't work. There will be crime anywhere there is civilization, whether you take your culture back 100 years or not, because where there are people, there are people who will do bad things no matter what!

So what I don't understand is why, when they realized they had a psychotic killer among them, they weren't able to say, "You know what? This isn't working! People are the same everywhere!" instead of continuing with a farce, lying to their children and scaring them to death of creatures that didn't exist, in the name of so-called safety.

I liked Ivy and what's-his-name, River Phoenix, though. They're strong characters, and I liked that it was Ivy who was the one who made the run through the woods--not only is she female, but blind on top of it. And she still kicks butt!

Okay, similarities to the book:

It's been a few months since I've read it, so it's all on recall, but pretty much it's *exactly* the same plot. Main characters are older, so Ivy has a love interest, and she's blind. But it's basically an isolationist community, and the girl protagonist has to make a run through the woods to the nearby city to get medicine for someone in the village who's sick. In the book, there's a cholera epidemic that she's trying to prevent any more children dying of. It's not really clear in the movie what the first child died of, but I thought it was cholera because of the book. When no other children died, I had to change my mind.

I think what's happened here is that the studio liked the basic idea of the book (they had optioned it, you see), but didn't want to have to stay true to the book. So they've used the basic plot, the skeleton, and given it new flesh. That can make it very hard to win a copyright suit, because I think the rule is that you can't copyright a plot, just specific details.  It'll be a tough case to prove, I think, but I also think Margaret Peterson Haddix is justified in thinking that they've lifted her idea.
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Re: The Village *Major Spoilers*
« Reply #14 on: August 14, 2004, 12:45:40 PM »
Quote
Ditto. I figured "oh the crazy Elder doesn't want her to get the medicine, so he's trying to scare her back."


There was a moment there in which I wondered if the nightmare creatures really did exist, but then I thought it was a crazy Elder, too. But now I think that all the animal killings, etc., were done by Noah. In other words, they had the makings of a psychotic serial killer in their midst, who had fixated on Ivy.
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