Hugely disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (10 January 2005)

M. Night Shyamalan has to be one of the most over-rated directors in Hollywood right now. Not only is he getting paid very good money to make his movies, he more or less makes the same movie again and again. And I for one am getting tired of it.
The Village centers around a lonely little Village in the middle of a forest. Around their village they have a fence that marks the border that no one may pass. There are beings in the woods that will take anyone that crosses the border and exact vengeance on the village for the trespassing. But when something horrible happens, what will they do? Will they dare venture for help? As most of Shyamalans films "The Village" starts out fine. He is adept at creating a mysterious and haunting mood and it works here. For a while at least. Because soon the constant speaking in riddles and constant mentioning of "those we do not speak of" becomes annoying. Also the pace is terrible. The movie moves onward at a slow crawl and never really picks up pace before the end. Acting is mostly decent but no character really stands out as very interesting.
But ultimately where this movie fails is the script-writing. I think it's time for Shyamalan to stay away from writing for a while, to get some new ideas. Because the formula of "Movie that drags on forever with a twist in the end" is becoming more and more dated. And even more trouble when i could see the plot-twist coming a mile away. "The Sixth Sense" was a decent thriller, "Unbreakable" was excellent. But since then Shyamalan has been going downhill. Which unfortunately makes this a waste of talent and money as well as my time.
I rate it 3/10.