Review of The Village (2004) by Campbell P — 29 Jan 2016

The Village is a good example of a movie that at first glance seems like it would be fantastic but ends up being a real disappointment. The film took way too long to have a point to its story even and the main plot ended up coming at the halfway mark and too long of a wait to get introduced to the main conflict.

The conflict of the story is that a village is separated from the towns due to the creatures in red suits keeping them from crossing borders and interfering with either side. But one day, Ivy decides to potentially sacrifice her life for the one she loves to get medicine from the towns.

I thought that a movie like this would be prepared to have a ton of chills and a clever twist, it almost seems destined to be a lot of fun. It sadly was a drag until the last half hour or so. The only redeeming qualities to the film before then were the good performances, this cast was really talented and were fine but not memorable in any way.

Then the other being the scene where the creatures enter the village and are treated to wide angle shots of the village and cool slow motion panning while Lucius is being chased. The sets were really neat with the cinematography setting the dimness, and dark atmosphere of the village.

The problem with this movie is that it isn't really smart in any way. The dialogue is kind of dull, the characters are average and forgettable, and the script is kind of plainly written. There's nothing really super significant about The Village in any way.

The thing that got me interested was that in the last 30 minutes some stakes were raised and it got a bit suspenseful with the quiet music and the camera movements for sure. The ending twist (of course, it's Shyamalan) wasn't shocking like The Sixth Sense or any other good movie's twists where I'm left dumbstruck and in awe with how much it can make sense in the new way too.

In this film I just felt, okay what's the point of knowing this now. I feel like the audience kinda already suspects what's going to happen. Its really disappointing and unnecessary to the plot in a way.

There's one aspect of it that needs to be in the film and that's the origin of the creatures and that was actually neat but every other aspect of the twist is just dumb to me. In the end, The Village is nothing to rush to see because of how insignificant its plot is and how disappointing the end result is.

It's a movie that when its on tv while flipping channels I'd think about watching it but then flip to something else. The sets are neat, the camerawork is good as well as the acting, but the rest is forgettable.

C.