Weak & Alleged !

Rating: 1/10 (25 May 2008)

OH MY GOD! They told me that this was an excellent movie from Hollywood. They told me that this was (M. Night Shyamalan)'s masterpiece. They told me that it was a hit. Well, they never told me that they, themselves, were so dumb!
This is without a doubt the worst of (Shyamalan)'s suspenseful pieces yet. (The Sixth Sense - 1999) was good but for one watching, (Unbreakable - 2000) was breakable but artistically, (Signs - 2002) despite its fine meaning it was a (The War of The World)'s rip-off, then (The Village - 2004) is the most alleged and the less entertaining.
At first, some stupid detached scenes like it's a French New Wave film. Then a childish horror movie. Then a thought-provoking twist to see how there is some idea about fear which delays or retards a community. Then (Shyamalan) thinks the unthinkable, to make what's very new, so let's give them another twist; it's not happening in the old times, it's our own days, and the seniors are nothing but a bunch of university graduates or professors who wanted once to build Utopia. So, at the end, it's the beginning of the revolution to make this community maybe more utopian. The way of making this manufactured a real icon among all the celebrated nonsense in the commercial American movies lately. At least (Mystic River - 2003) was highly overrated already though not nonsense, and (Spiderman - 2002) was the top of silliness, however it didn't allege anything!
You may strive strong feelings of boredom by saying "HEY, it's unusual. Give it a chance. It's some oddity. Novelty. Different". BUT when it grows on, you would hate it, its makers, and yourself also for respecting such a work. It didn't deserve it, for instance: (Shyamalan) irritatingly makes the first 40 minutes as quiet as possible, in the lowest tone, to surprise us with the sudden appearance of the monsters. In fact, it could've been masterly done if this horror sequence was effective enough, or that the previous sequence was deeply enough, such as its like in (Alfred Hitchcock)'s (The Birds - 1963). However, the whole trick, rather the whole movie, sunk!
All the thrilling moments were primitive. There was no good acting, since there were no good roles. It didn't have convincing catchy characters, brilliant hot conflict, or dexterous profound meanings. This script just incapacitated its idea and its atmosphere into foolish treatment to turn out to be boring, assuming, and idiotically made. In one word, there is no horror, or else!
Moreover: How those people managed to separate this village from the whole world? How did they build it in the first place? How they got all of that old costumes, sets, and equipments? Why the father left his own blind daughter into the forest alone? Why he didn't go with her as long as there was no ghost but himself?? And that last sequence.. OHHH when Mr. (Shyamalan) himself plays the big sheriff who warns his deputy, as if the writer, director, producer gives us a bonus: a symbolically political satire! As he refers maybe to how the bigger society could be ruled by authority that owns the knowledge for itself, and makes all the people busy with fake ghosts, for achieving a hidden agenda. Remember bombing Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan after one week of Monica-gate, or claiming the presence of nuclear weapons in Iraq for controlling it and its petroleum,.. etc. It can be well-meaning movie, but in the worst way ever!
I didn't find anything here to enjoy. Maybe (Bryce Dallas Howard)'s wonderful smile. I liked only the sound of her laughter since I don't deem any performance as something useful in this movie. What's the use of great machines in a deactivated factory? Not to mention, how honorable actors like (Brendan Gleeson) or (Sigourney Weaver) looked so naive or deceived in a dead drama like this? (William Hurt) seemed so imbecile, particularly at his last 4 scenes; like he was doing a Shakespearean play in a nursery school's stage!
So in this kind of work, you'd never notice why the progeny of this fear was whether a mentally-handicapped, or blind, or teenager anyway, because (M. Night Shyamalan), its very much creator, was its very much killer. To be all eventually a comedy, like the scene of the blind girl and the patrol, or a black comedy indeed about killing your own idea, making an idiot movie, and to be loved by millions of idiots in the same time as well!
Sorry, I hate to watch a bad movie, I hate it more when it got promising idea, and I hate it to the utmost when it alleges high meanings ridiculously.