Michael Keating I don't understand a single rating on this movie under an 8. An original idea with an outstanding cast and a memorable plot deserves some credit. It is the most original movie I have seen in at least a year, probably more.

mrstrangerjones I was enthralled with this film. M. Night Shyamalan has crafted a very atmospheric thriller and an interesting drama. I really liked the performances from Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, and (possibly my favorite out of the three) Adrien Brody. The story was also well-crafted.However, it was the plot twist that really made the film worse. (The one at the very end, not the earlier one)This felt kinda forced, and also dumb. However, since then, I have thought about it and the twist does make a bit of sense. It might not even be as dumb as I think it is.This is where Shyamalan dwindled, but I hope he comes back to his heights of "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" with his next film, "Glass".

fukumingo8 Wonderful atmosphere, magic and reality perfectly mixed on a film with plenity of political and social points of view.

Uatu the movie watcher I couldn't muster the amount of suspension of disbelief it would take for me to enjoy this movie. It makes absolutely no sense: So because the elders, intelligent university educated scientists and educators, didn't want to be confronted with violence, grief and fear again they isolate themselves in a village with no technology and without any contact with the modern world? This raises a myriad of questions: Firstly: Why can't they use modern appliances? I get that they can't use communication devises or television because that would connect them to the modern world. But why can't they use electric kitchen appliances, electric farming equipment, lightbulbs etc.? The children wouldn't know any better because they grew up in the village and have never seen the modern world. And for the same reason; why can't they use modern medicine? Secondly: Their refusal to use modern medicine has caused a lot of suffering in the village. Ivy went blind because they couldn't treat her and the movie starts of with the funeral of a young child who died because of the lack of treatment.Thirdly: The elders, the ones who came up with this crackpot plan, dress up like big demonic monsters and terrorize everyone in the village supposedly being triggered by the color red. Which means the villagers live in constant fear and destroy everything which is red. When the "monsters" attack the villagers have to lock themselves in underground hiding spots. This constant fear combined with the lack of modern technology and medicine makes their existence much more violent, miserable and fearful than it would have been if they had continued to live in the modern world. They would have been better off forming a gated community or a neighborhood watch rather than this non-solution which can only be described as hippy treehugger logic combined with cult fanaticism.Fourthly: Apparently Kevin pays the government not to fly airplanes over their village. I still haven't decided whether this is a dumber and more contrived plot device than Indiana Jones surviving a nuclear blast by jumping into a refrigerator in kingdom of the crystal skull. The idea that a private citizen can pay the U.S. government to reroute air-traffic and establish a no-fly zone above their village is completely ridiculous. It also doesn't prevent private citizens from flying over the terrain. So if you don't want any airplanes flying over your village you'd have to go to congress to explain your reasoning and the importance of the no-fly zone. In the extraordinary event that the US congress agrees and passes the bill, the bill would then have to be signed by the U.S. president himself to make it a law so that private citizens would also have to obey it. To make a very long story very short; not gonna happen! And I haven't even touched upon the lesser illogical, unrealistic and overly convenient plot devices. Like how convenient it was that they hid a suit under the floor boards where they tied up Noah and that he happened to know it was there. How convenient it was that the officer gave Ivy the medicine without asking too many questions about where she came from and that he let a blind girl return to her village without supervision so that the other villagers wouldn't see the modern police officer and his modern uniform and gun.But the one thing which really ticks me off about this movie is that it wasted the talent of Howard Shore, one of the greatest composers of our age. I find it criminal that such an amazing soundtrack, rightly nominated for an Oscar, has been squandered on such a mediocre movie.I give this movie a 5/10. The soundtrack really is its only saving grace.