The Village a letdown

Rating: 5/10 (4 August 2004)

Anyone who spends time talking about the "twist" is wasting your time. The twist ending is largely irrelevant to the entire movie. Yeah it is there, and yeah you can pat yourself on the back for getting it, but it is about as meaningful to the movie as a celebrity cameo.
The Village could have been a great thriller, but instead ended up a B level Outer Limits episode. The Village as social commentary isn't that bad, except that it doesn't break any new ground. Basically the overall theme of The Village is that fear is used to keep society in line. Sure the message is relevant, but most people know this and M.Night doesn't really bring any new dialogue to the table.
Like most of Nights films you can nitpick the movie to pieces, but it is pointless because thats just how he writes his movies. M.Night is a big picture kind of guy, the minutia of details are irrelevant.
The end result is The Village is a letdown because it isn't good entertainment. It is social commentary, but without any revelations, so the great setup and mood is ruined.