ellsworth81
08-15-2004, 07:49 PM
The hallowed auteur, M. Night Shyamalan, finally completes his blazingly fast plummet from the tops of the peaks into the very depths of hack-dom with the release of The Village. Cursed by the albatross known as “Sixth Sense”, Shyamalan comes to the end of the road, apparently grasping at invisible straws and racking his brain in a futile attempt to craft a convincingly clever story.
Much like in his other movies, Shyamalan keeps it simple and tells us of the crisis that has befallen this one particular, isolated village. Why are they isolated, you ask? A malevolent group of beings live in the woods surrounding their town and have no compunction in slaying those that would dare intrude upon their territory. Moreover, from time to time, they will terrorize the hapless villagers to remind them of their superiority. When many of the villagers fall ill to the elements and require medical supplies, Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix) is commissioned to cross through the forbidden woods and seek help.
Speaking of needing help, Shyamalan fails in all aspects of the movie-enjoyment process. The plot is nothing extraordinary, and the trademark “twist” was predictable in the first five minutes. I wish I could say my deductive abilities are improving, but that seems as unlikely as Shyamalan’s chances of getting another movie deal in Hollywood.
With actors like Adrien Brody (The Pianist) and Phoenix, it’s amazing that Shyamalan could waste their on-screen time and pervert their ability into this debacle. In fact, actors could have been seamlessly replaced with Sonny the Robot (from I, Robot) especially since lines were delivered with the same pizzazz you would find at a eulogy. Actually, I take that back. Sonny the Robot was capable of emotion. Shyamalan also fails to give us a good reason to even care a whit for these yahoos and their unfortunate plight.
In case I haven’t been critical enough, this movie is almost a dead-ringer for “Signs”. Granted, there are some differences, but movies don’t seem all that different. Hell, Joaquin Phoenix is even in both movies!
To recap, this movie was an absolute waste of time, though not as vile as, say, Bad Boys 2. If there were any social criticisms or other hidden message to take away, I completely missed them in the snail-like pacing of the storyline. Admittedly, I saw a dodgy version of the movie and video quality was less than ideal, and to its credit, “The Village” seems like a “pretty” movie in terms of its technical aspects, but nothing was prettier than the 20 minutes of beauty rest I caught during this flick.
Much like in his other movies, Shyamalan keeps it simple and tells us of the crisis that has befallen this one particular, isolated village. Why are they isolated, you ask? A malevolent group of beings live in the woods surrounding their town and have no compunction in slaying those that would dare intrude upon their territory. Moreover, from time to time, they will terrorize the hapless villagers to remind them of their superiority. When many of the villagers fall ill to the elements and require medical supplies, Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix) is commissioned to cross through the forbidden woods and seek help.
Speaking of needing help, Shyamalan fails in all aspects of the movie-enjoyment process. The plot is nothing extraordinary, and the trademark “twist” was predictable in the first five minutes. I wish I could say my deductive abilities are improving, but that seems as unlikely as Shyamalan’s chances of getting another movie deal in Hollywood.
With actors like Adrien Brody (The Pianist) and Phoenix, it’s amazing that Shyamalan could waste their on-screen time and pervert their ability into this debacle. In fact, actors could have been seamlessly replaced with Sonny the Robot (from I, Robot) especially since lines were delivered with the same pizzazz you would find at a eulogy. Actually, I take that back. Sonny the Robot was capable of emotion. Shyamalan also fails to give us a good reason to even care a whit for these yahoos and their unfortunate plight.
In case I haven’t been critical enough, this movie is almost a dead-ringer for “Signs”. Granted, there are some differences, but movies don’t seem all that different. Hell, Joaquin Phoenix is even in both movies!
To recap, this movie was an absolute waste of time, though not as vile as, say, Bad Boys 2. If there were any social criticisms or other hidden message to take away, I completely missed them in the snail-like pacing of the storyline. Admittedly, I saw a dodgy version of the movie and video quality was less than ideal, and to its credit, “The Village” seems like a “pretty” movie in terms of its technical aspects, but nothing was prettier than the 20 minutes of beauty rest I caught during this flick.