The Village is a good movie

I saw The Village a few days ago, and because so many people have told me so many times how horrible of a movie it was (including Ebert), my friend had to practically force me to see it.

And you know what? It’s a damn good movie.

I think it was marketed in completely the wrong way. If you go into the movie expecting a typical Shyamalan horror picture with a twist ending…you won’t get it. You will probably think the movie isn’t that good.

But The Village is really Shyamalan’s attempt to move outside that box. Oh sure, there is a horror aspect to it - after all, that’s what he’s really good at - but the film is far more about the characters and the concept of “the village” than it is about scaring people.

The film itself is beautifully done. Almost every shot is clever, the color palette is amazing, and the soundtrack is phenominal. It’s hard to talk about the psychological overtones of the movie without revealing some of the plot, but I found an interesting amount of psychology outside of the basic question itself.

Essentially, as soon as you see the film for the questions it asks and the journey the characters undergo, it becomes a good movie.