Disappointment (this review contains a spoiler)

Rating: 3/10 (16 August 2002)

I usually stay to see the credits at the end of the movie; I didn't bother this time. The premise was great, but the delivery was poor. The family's farm is located outside Philadelphia - not in the middle of nowhere. But their crop circles don't get the same media attention as all the other circles throughout the world. No planes go over that part of Pennsylvania?? When it is learned that the aliens use the circles for navigation (what a clever idea, haven't heard that one before), the family stays there and it not encouraged or forced by anyone to leave (like the police or the national guard). And then one of the main "emotional" scenes in the basement when an alien tries to attack the little boy, the aliens conveniently decide to leave. I guess they knew the movie was nearing 2 hours. Aliens are so thoughtful. There is no real explanation of why the aliens are there, why they leave, etc. Background on that is given by the boy reading from a book about aliens. I expected more than cliches from Shymalan. Why didn't he make the aliens malevolent? In general, the acting was good. However, Mel Gibson was not well cast in this. His "emotional" scenes were forced and overdone. But then, the script was pretty weak, so it is hard to say if anyone could have really done any better. Wait for it to come out on video - and it really doesn't matter if you're alone or not. It is not scary at all.