Okay movie, but the worst of his lot IMO

Rating: 3/10 (14 January 2005)

Seems like all of Shyamalan's movies tend to start off slow and build until the plot thickens as much as it can before revealing some earth shattering ending. This one was similar in many ways, the acting was good, and the cinema photography was good, the story was so so IMO. However this movie lacked something for me. Yes it was a slow developing & unwinding story (similar to his previous movies), but I guess I just failed to find enough interest in the plot and the characters as well because of that.
Slight Spoilers ahead I found this movie more strange than entertaining. From the first few minutes you know something just isn't right with this town and you think you're watching some Star Trek episode about a pre warp civilization. And then comes the monster talk, the fear these villagers have of them, and the ambiance surrounding them. While it was semi intriguing, I started to loose interest when I found out certain things about the creatures and the main guy meets with an unfortunate circumstance. I didn't yet unravel the reason for much of this, but obviously I knew something was very odd. At this point I keep watching, semi interested in what's going to happen to the girl. I'm glad she killed the village idiot (too much jean mixing I guess) as he was just annoying. Then she finally reaches her destination and the whole plot twist comes spewing out like a drunk on new years eve. At this point I'm really loosing interest and saying to myself "UmÂ… this is it???" The fire works I was expecting had been a few sparklers instead. Snap crackle and pop and then nothing. I started off with little interest, then it built up, then just when it was supposed to keep climbing as is my previous experiences with Shyamalan's movies have been, it started dropping off. Not because I couldn't believe what was unfolding or the possibility of it, I just found it stupid and a let down. Kind of like going on a treasure hunt only to find a secret decoder ring. It was at this point where I said, "Man I watched this thing for 90 minutes just to find out this!?!!
Clearly his worst film that I have seen. Either he's running out of original stories with cool twist endings, or I missed the boat on this one. That being said I wouldn't say it was horrible, and had I only watched the first half of it I might have better things to say about it, but the ending was a big let down for me and pretty much spoiled things leaving a bad taste in my mouth. If you are fans of his other movies, give it a try (when there's nothing better to rent), you might really like it. Then again you might see it like I did.