People, "The Village" was marketed poorly.
 

It was a commentary on society. It was in some ways a farce, but mostly a deep and insightful look into the ways of small town america.

It was marketed poorly. The type of people that went to see the movie are not the type of people that would have went had they known it was "a commentary" on culture.

The movie is good. Actually, the movie is real good.

It is strange how big of an effect my ?expectations? can have on my enjoyment of a movie.

I agree with you. I was enraged at the damn movie the first hour until I figured out what was going on.

I had to change my expectations. I was in the mood for a scarey movie.

I want to see it.

I will see it

They made it seem like it was going to be a straight out horror movie bad choice

Don't care. It was marketed as a thriller and that's how I'm going to judge it. Who needs a commentary on society anyhow?? I want to be entertained. Simple.

i agree,

I'd have to agree with this. I don't need Hollywood to teach me about life lessons..got enough of that with 1,000's of "Very Special Blossom" episodes.

But seriously..I have not seen this movie yet...I will judge it on it's own merits when I finally do...not just how Hollywood markets it.

Very common mistake Hollywood often makes - mismarketing a film. Many times, despite how they decide to market it, a film will switch (midstream) from a comedy to horror to action to drama. Very frustrating experience when you walk out of a theater and ask yourself WTF was that?! :mad:

It's not a scary movie?

Yes, the trailers screwed up expectations without a doubt. But I think the people in charge also realised that as a social commentary the movie also does a poor job. If it did a good job at it why would it wrap it like this?

Well that was probably because m night can't possibly get one of his scripts done that doesn't have a "a twist". In the village this twist is heavily sought and I think that is what made movie goers boycot it in the end. Maybe people didn't understand but then again the movie had no real interest in being understood, it wanted to sell tickets and was willing to plagiarize itself to do so, movie goers don't like that.

I didn't go wild for this movie, but I also wasn't as disappointed as numerous reviews would have led me to think I would be. It's an average movie from a guy who did a ground breaking one, expectations are too high and people will be easily disappointed (look at star wars).

it a scare movie in the vein of alfred hitchcock all based on mood and ambience.

Lighting , sound create the suspense and "fear" but for a modern "horror"/"scary movie" fan who is expecting blood guts etc it is not really scary.

If you watched the promo mockumentary you got the idea that it was an oumage to the classic horror movies of the past.

If all you saw was the tv ads you got the wrong idea about the movie.

Yeah, I must agree, this movie is really good !

What about Apocalypse Now and Fight Club?

Both movies that, although entertain, carry very Perspicacious messages.

Yeah, bad marketing.

It was the same with "Independance Day." I went to see a movie about our forefathers regaining their independance and it ended up being about a black guy killing aliens. WTF????

Ok that post deserves a :1orglaugh

I thought it was a great film, but the previews definitely made me expect more of a horror movie with the signature Shamalan (sp?) twist. Even the big twist was revealed too early with the description of that woman's brother dying in an alley.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

I didn't watch it yet but I'm going too ... it's not a horror movie ?

You're right.

I have a lot of respect for M. Night Shyamalan. He's a gifted storyteller AND a savvy participant in the unfortunate Hollywood movie-making machine.

I'm not going to criticize Hollywood because they make so many mindless, vapid, formulaic movies. Sure, they're ignoring the most creative possibilities of the art form -- but only because they're chasing maximum box-office revenue.

Many people in the movie industry would say that you can make a smart film OR you can make money, but NOT BOTH. I respect M. Night for trying to have it both ways.

It's clear from looking at his previous movies, especially "Signs", that he's trying to create films that gratify on different levels for different audiences. On the one hand, you have mainstream America, with its appetite for expansive heroes and global stakes. On the other, you have your film nerds who like to talk about metaphor and dramatic structure -- for weeks after they see the movie. I'm usually in the latter category, but, as a marketer, I always take note of the movies that make money -- even if I would never see them myself.

As a marketer, given the objective of spending money to promote "The Village", I would make the SAME choices made by the producers of this film.

The BIG money is in getting the people who would not pay money to see a "cultural commentary" to do so. This is what the marketing campaign sought to do. Cory, they know that guys like me and you will go because we know the director's work. Take note that, however many misleading explosions or "moments of horror" they might show in the trailers, they ALWAYS say "...from the director who brought you such and such..."

THAT'S for us, Cory.


j-

It would have been hard to market it any other way. They marketed it to make the most money in ticket and DVD sales, not to get the crowd to appreciate it. Yeah so they got the audience expecting a scary movie and they left them staring blankly at the screen not knowing what was going on at the end. Who cares? They got paid.

I still have to see it, I hear alot of people say they either love it or hate it so that made me curious

:thumbsup :1orglaugh

I liked it when I saw it in the theatre.

But more importantly, I like the way you started your subject, "People,..."
:)

Speaking about bad marketing of a movie. How about "Alien Vs. Predator", the big slogan for that movie was something like "Whoever wins, we lose", what a crock of shit that was. I figured that the Predator would end up being like the good guy, but having him team up with a human chick, that was kinda gay thing for a predator to do.

I guess that in that case you still knew what kind of movie it was gonna be, but they made it sound like it was the Aliens Vs Predator Vs Humans.

I just rented it. Gonna watch it with the girls tonight. Do you know how hard it is to pick a movie for three girls to watch? One who is so ditzy she got confused in the Bourne Identity, one who can't stand scary movies (Resident Evil 1 was a bit much for her) and a girl who tears apart everything piece by piece? Yeah, it was a good time at the video store.

the idiots i went to see it with couldnt appreciate it for what it was... they were like "that wasnt even scary"

I have to agree. I thought that it was going to be a horror movie, I was a wee bit disappointed to say the least, but it was rather good.

Great movie. Great social commentary. Our society is too fucked up. Sometimes I feel like packing up and moving to the woods.

Yes, I agree.

I have not seen "Signs" yet.

I liked the movie, but Shyamalan has made better movies

I am watching it tonight. I really liked Signs but never realized I like it until the end. I kept waiting for the "scary" part.

Yeah, that pissed me off. Everyone died EXCEPT the human!!!

Its in my watch list.

Sounds like you guys don't need to be watching anything together. :1orglaugh

Fact: "Signs" is a crap movie

Thanks for the comments.

I will watch it tomorrow :upsidedow

Ok, watched it last night. We all agreed it was a pretty decent movie. Same colour motif as in the Sixth Sense, which was kind of cool. I like the premise, and the setup was very good, though it was quite obvious what the end would be. Overall, I guess I give it a 7 out of 10.

I took it as a commentary about our culture of fear. Terrorism, government, etc.

That being said it was still almost as bad as Signs, which, to me, is one of the worst movies ever.

It only took me about 20 minutes to figure it out, but I enjoyed the movie.

I have to disagree with you. I didn't even have a clue what the movie was or was about (not much film marketing down here in costa rica), but decided to just see it one day at the theatre.

The first half was GREAT, looked like the movie was very promising....and then they blew it.

The whole second half was (to me) very very predictable and boring. Nothing came as any surprise...it lacked any impact the first half was building up.

I'm also a huge fan of independant films and not so much into big hollywood ones. This movie just didn't do it for me :2 cents:

its a little bit scary, but in the intelligent way. Some people think that horrors with ugly looking monsters who kill people are scary, but those movies are funny. The most scarying is when you wait for a monster to come all the time, but you dont see it.

I watched it last night. It was ok, nothing more...

I love it. :)

Yep, spose it was marketed to a young audience as being a thriller. It was I guess for a little while. I was a bit annoyed that it wasnt the scary movie I thought it was going to be, but it was a great see never the less.

Really worth watching the dvd features, as it shows you how they made the whole freaking village from a vacant parcel of land, amazing work. Also, the stars had to live the lives of those people they portrayed, interesting stuff.

Now. a scary movie that doesnt let you down? Try "The Gurdge", that is a nice shocker that one imho!. Some scenes in there that should make u jump out of your pants!

One of the biggest detractors for me was the the Ivy girl kept LOOKING at things that shouldn't have "colours". She just wasn't that great at playing blind.

I didn't see it in the theaters because I thought it was a horror flick. However, I watched it in my hotel room a few nights ago and loved it.

I hated the movie. It sucked. :disgust

It was average..started above par & finished below par, which leaves it at average.

P.S. WHY did the "park ranger" sneak the medical supplies to the girl? Maybe I missed something there..but I thought he would take her in and say something to the effect of "We've got a nutcase here!"