"The Village" Official Spoiler Thread

[Ashen Victor]

the creatures are superhero ghost aliens, and the only way to beat them is to move near the water.

M. Night is a genius.

and anyone see that M. Night special they did on Sci-Fi? i saw like a few minutes of it before changing to something else, and it seemed to make him look like some fucked up weirdo who could see dead people when he was in elementary school.

[dave is ok]

Werewolves, who are attracted to red because of little red riding hood.

[Ashen Victor]

i bet the twist in the end is that there is no twist.

[Drewbacca]

an untwist! WHAT A GENIUS!

[aren]

Anyone catch that special on SciFi channel called M. Night Shyamalan 's Buried Secret or something like that? However, CNN.com reported that it was hoax, and you can read the article here. But it was interesting nonetheless.

[Despair]

From what I read about, SciFi channel special was pretty awfull. All they did was to try to paint the director to look like a weirdo, and hype the movie (simular to what was done to Blair Witch Project).

Andrew, How about Aliens who are allergic to water, running around in the high corn in the wee hours of the morning, when there are alot of dew on the vegetation and try to scare poor Mel Gibson

I just hope it doesnt turn into morality tale bullshit, like Signs did.

[BioMechanic]

The thing that bothered me most about Signs was the spiritualism of Gibson's character, but it wasn't vital to the plot, and I can ignore it easily.

As for the alien/water issue, it seemed pretty obvious to me that the aliens were absolutely desperate. They'd have to be, in order to invade a planet that was largely poisonous to them. The fact that there's water in the air made them so weak they couldn't break down doors or fight very hard, and their entire "invasion" was turned away overnight. As for their technology, perhaps they used up all their weaponry trying to invade other planets and only had minimal transportation left. It's speculated that the aliens came to harvest humans, but we never find out why.

In the end, however, these details didn't matter much to me. The film wasn't about the alien invasion - it was about a normal family reacting to catastrophic events beyond their understanding. Mel, Joaquin, and the two kid actors all did a fantastic job communicating their fear and confusion, and I thought Night relayed their fear and suspense in a brilliant fashion without being gratuitous or exploitative.

I hated Sixth Sense, maybe because I guessed the end as soon as Bruce Willis got shot. From there, it seemed to me the entire film relied on the twist ending and manipulated the audience the whole time. The main thing that kept me interested was the performance of Mercedes Ruehl.

With Unbreakable and Signs, Night has become progressively better at creating and maintaining atmosphere. The guy's only 33, and is just coming into his prime. I do think he's not the greatest writer in Hollywood, but at least his plots are original and interesting. His strengths are his camera-work (cinematographer Tak Fujimoto also deserves credit), and his ability to get amazing performances out of his actors without overwriting their characters.

With The Village, I expect this growth to continue, especially since he's got actors the caliber of William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver, not to mention Joaquin Phoenix again. Bryce Dallas Howard is reportedly incredible as well.

I don't really care if there's a twist, or what the twist is, to a certain extent, although I'm very intruigued by the mystery. I'm mainly excited about the film because I think Night is a highly talented visual artist whose work behind the camera is unique among current mainstream directors. For me, the plot is secondary.

[Calliander]

M. Night said on the Stern show yesterday that "The Village" is a period piece, so whatever rituals the people are doing are probably to some sort of demon with a connection to fire (or something else with that water bane that has been prevalent in his films). A balrog, maybe, or an ifreeti? Perhaps a red dragon?

I hated Sixth Sense, maybe because I guessed the end as soon as Bruce Willis got shot. From there, it seemed to me the entire film relied on the twist ending and manipulated the audience the whole time. The main thing that kept me interested was the performance of Mercedes Ruehl.

Note that Crowe never took his jacket off.

His strengths are his camera-work (cinematographer Tak Fujimoto also deserves credit), and his ability to get amazing performances out of his actors without overwriting their characters.

A little fun regarding the camera work and cinematography - watch through Unbreakable again and point out as many scenes as you can which have borders to them just like a comic book. For instance, the opening sequence is shown in the mirror.

[Drewbacca]

A little fun regarding the camera work and cinematography - watch through Unbreakable again and point out as many scenes as you can which have borders to them just like a comic book. For instance, the opening sequence is shown in the mirror.

Almost EVERY scene in Unbreakable could be framed into a comic book. They also gave him a subtle superhero uniform (his security poncho and baseball cap). It was a well done movie, it's just that the ending was shit. They basically did a made-for TV ending where he didn't properly close out the movie and that's what made a lot of people mad at this movie.

It was still awesome.

[Mzo]

The thing that bothered me most about Signs was the spiritualism of Gibson's character, but it wasn't vital to the plot, and I can ignore it easily.

I thought the entire plot was Mel's character regaining his faith in god because he tells him (in Mysterious Ways) how to defeat the aliens.

Like Andrew pointed out, a race intelligent enough to be space-faring wouldn't be so dumb as to attack a planet without any research... how do you miss that your species is allergic to 70% of the planet?

And couldn't you just come back with waterproof suits and own anyway? Or robots. Or shoot them from space. Whatever.