Warning: Spoilers Ahead
Time to breakdown M. Night Shyamalan’s, The Village.
The Shyamagold:
• THAT ROGER DEAKINS CINEMATOGRAPHY GOODNESS! WOW, WOW, WOW!
• Shyamalan writes just the dandiest of characters. Blind Dallas Howard for the win.
• Joaquin Phoenix is a god who can save any mess of a film. That is if, theoretically, this mess of a film has him present throughout the entire movie…
• Directing of the camera is miraculous. Shows you Shyamalan isn’t vacant in terms of his magical talents quite yet.
• Costumes, props, etc. are spruce.
• Neat twist!
• Even neater second twist!
The Shyamabull:
• Most of the dialogue and delivery from the actors/actresses are awkwardly ATROCIOUS.
• A ton of character actions/decisions make zero sense. Many “whys?” were spoken that day in my TV room.
• Transitions are seriously spontaneous.
• The police officer’s acting and just his character in general is a sin on its own.
• Plot. Hole. Galore.
• Last scene is an “eh” way to end the movie.
The Kajillion Shyamalanian Twists:
• Joaquin Phoenix is not actually dead… after getting stabbed…multiple times…. somehow….
• Red = Blood. Symbolism. Boom.
• The monsters aren’t real and are just the Elders playing “Trick or Treat”! Cute!
• The magical rocks aren’t actually magical rocks and are just used to trick gullible villagers who don’t know the “secret”. Thank golly.
• Adrien Brody is actually the monster hunting down Ivy. Shyamalan tried to ploy us into thinking he was a real monster even though the film literally just revealed that the monsters (who all wear the same exact costume designs) aren’t real, only in history books. Cheap move man. Cheap move.
• The villagers were unconsciously Amish the whole time and the Elders were just some traumatized hippies who meet in therapy camp! Now that’s a truly clever Shyamatwist!
• Simple medicine is all you need to save a person’s life—even for anyone who gets stabbed a billion times.
The Village is ethically one of the most difficult films I’ve ever had to rate. The film is frankly, ingenious within—some—of its plot, but has too much brainless, unsystematic garbage in it for it to pound anywhere near Shyamalan at his height. So with that said, this is the fairest grade I could come up with for M. Night’s, The Village: (Verdict: C+)
This Movie Is A Part Of My List: Ranking M. Night Shyamalan’s Films From Best To Worst
“The Village” is now available to rent and buy Amazon Prime, YouTube, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, and Netflix.
Burning the Celluloid 
Published by