*** SPOILER WARNING***

Firstly, I didn't expect the overwhelming email response I got from my (previous) Why I Hated the Village post. After taking everyone's comments and sorting it out, I have arrived at the following conclusions:

1. The visible boom mic(s) was the projectionist fault. And, stuff like that happens all the time.

2. The Village was screwed up all over Portland this weekend, not just at Lloyd Center.

3. It seemed that not one person didn't see the film's twist/ending a mile away. In retrospect, I thought it was cheating that there was a tombstone with the 1800's engraved on it, but initially I noticed that there weren't many - if any - other people buried in the cemetery (which led me to believe that it was sorta new). Also, I'm left with lingering questions about how many people came to the village before they raised all the dumb, puritan kids. Clearly the Elders had their kids after settling (and some of their kids had kids). But, there were other adults there that couldn't have been their offspring. Did they know about the monsters? Maybe they were brothers and sisters of the Elders/Founders? I think we need a companion guide to the movie, maybe with maps and family trees. And, eventually there's the topic if inbreeding...

4. I still liked it. Shyamalan makes good solid films - with remarkable casting and cinematography. Just because we can guess the ending of the movie doesn't make it bad, in my opinion. I think he's being held to an unfair standard because of his other, more hard-to-see-the-twist endings. Like Orson Welles with Citizen Kaine, Shyamalan is constantly measured by his first film. I think his body of work speaks for itself. But, I do agree that the marketing of the film was over-the-top, and thus disappointing.

And before I forget:
Nate pointed out that the plot had a strong resemblance to a children's book: Running out of Time

That is all.