Well... I liked the movie, but some critics fell that it left them empty hoping that the secret of the "Creatures" was better used.

I kinda agree with them in a way. M. Night Shaylaman got the whole villane, people and creatures nicley, but the end result was something more subtle and muted than what I expected. But I give the director a pass on this, a somewhat lackluster but still interesting movie.

He gives us the characters and setting that is done well. The villane people are that of a mid-1900's era and move about with content as the noises coming from the forest freezes them for moments.

I think that The Village could have been something more if the 'secret' was something totaly different. What was presented towards the end was something really didn't fit with the first half of the film. Although, it did answer some questions about the underlying secret the elders were keeping, it felt out of place with what was already givein to the audience.

I think the revelation about the "creatures" is what takes the movie in another directon than where it probaly should have gone. The part where the villagers run to their houses to hide from them and when they appeared was really a device to steer the audince in to thinking that the movie was about the "Creatures" crossing into the village out of anger. I was wrong!

Now that I think about it, I kinda know why he had the events play out as they did. In Signs, he didn't reveal the aliens fully, because we were invested with the family. Here with The Village he throws us a "2-3 change up" to the inside when we were expecting a slider down the middle of the plate. They look similar when it comes out of the pitchers hand, but when the batter notices that the spin of the ball is wrong he's frozen in his place.

The Village is not what it seems to be and not what I was expecting while being what I was expecting at the same time. Shaylaman uses the undertones of secrets to bait us in while still effectively uses a twinge of supernatural elements to keep us invested. I think the use of the scerets that the elders hid was a bad move.

It's not that the premise was bad, but it eventually takes you somewhere other than where you were you thought you were being taken earlier in the film. It's not a bad movie and to be honest, the revelation is a damn interesting one at that. Close to the end, Shaylaman tried to take the movie into steer the movie into another direction while still maintaining the story and I didn't mind that. The direction where the story ended up was an interesting one even if it didn't seem plausable.

I think the flaw was that even though the direction shift was tied to the 'secrets' of the elders, it didn't feel as if it fit the early parts of the movie. IF anything, the movie would have worked better if he stayed with the "Creatures" and made the secret about them and the village more centalized together instead about the inclusion of the elder's past before the village was founded.

Overall Shalyman knows how to scare an audience. He'll never let that go. I think The Village was an idea that should not have veered away from what he gave us in the first 3/4 of the film. It's a real good suspensefull movie that tapers off in the last quarter of the film.

It not a bad movie, but flawed. However, I still say that it's worthy of being seen in theaters. But I'd say once the revelation is revealed, pay close attention to everything that's given to you from then on. There are some questions left unanswered that'll make you want to get the dvd to find them out.

My rating for The Village: C+

I'd never thought I'd be giving Shalyman such an average grade after seeing his previous work, but I guess not everyone can be perfect.


I'm Gho....


Oh yeah!!! BTW, since the site was down, I didn't get a chance to review Bourne Supremacy! I'll be brief. If you've seen it, then you know how damn good it is. If you haven't, it's that rare sequel that's better than the first movie, only it's really 3 times as better!

C'est tout!


Ghost Dragon