The most intelligent stupid movie I've seen in a long time

Rating: 4/10 (27 August 2002)

*SPOILERS APLENTY!*
Just finished watching Signs.....
That was probably the most unnecessary and elaborate way to describe a mans return to faith....
I call this movie intelligent because in many ways it was well written, original and gets you thinking. On the other hand, I call this movie stupid because in many ways it was poorly written, unoriginal and leaves you empty.
Having seen neither The Sixth Sense nor Unbreakable (Yes, there are one or two of us out there) I was able to watch this film without any preconceptions or expectations of Shyamalan's latest "triumph". I was expecting nothing, and I got nothing in return. (To be honest, I hope that The Sixth Sense is a lot better than this.)
Right....I guess I'd better explain my opening statements.
The dialogue (and acting, for that matter) was very good, I laughed a few times, I found the kids surprisingly unannoying and the little hints that are given throughout the movie come together nicely towards the end (the whole thing with Bo's "hydrophobia" was very clever). HOWEVER; The actual plot was pretty silly. By "actual" I mean; Priest loses faith after wife dies in crash, crop circles appear, turns out that aliens are invading the planet, the (former) priest and his family manage to fend off the aliens for one night, the aliens inexplicably leave, man regains his faith and returns to priesthood...The End. I mean seriously, if you read that plot outline, without any knowledge of the cast or crew, there is no way that you would leave your computer/couch/children and go to the movies to see that. I know that the story has a deeper meaning than the skimpy synopsis I've just written, but that's honestly how I felt.
This is obviously not a Sci-Fi flick. It's a story about a man and his struggle with his spirituality, disguised under the premise of a Sci-Fi thriller. And a Sci-Fi thriller it is, up until the last 15 min or so, where the real message is revealed. I felt cheated. After watching Signs, I can't help but think of The Abyss. Fantastic build-up, visually superb (although in two different ways), a constant feeling of "what-will-happen-next" and then....a finale that completely lets you down, almost insulted. (Don't get me wrong, I love The Abyss. Great movie, stupid ending.) This doesn't mean I would prefer an all out "Starship Trooperesque" battle to save humanity. That would've pissed me off completely. It just felt like a total waste of a good idea to make the point of telling people that "all things happen for a reason". I'm sure that people who are more spiritually inclined than myself will appreciate this film for those exact reasons, but handing out pamphlets on the subject would have had the same, if not more, impact on me.
Focusing on the alien aspect, the amount of flaws and shortcomings they have are just plain bizarre. We're talking about a race of beings that can travel across time and space, engage in inter-planetary warfare and make really groovy patterns in fields, but for some reason they can't seem to grasp the concept of breaking down doors, using weapons and wearing protection against their two arch-nemeses, H20 and baseball bats. Oh, but wait..I almost forgot...One of them does seem to possess the ingenuity to break down a door, ignore the retreat of his compatriots, find Mr. Gibson at the other side of town and nab his kid when nobody was looking. A piece of logic exceeded only by Jaws in "Jaws: The Revenge", where the baddest fish in the pond manages to track the frightened heroes from Amity to the Bahamas. Hmmm.....
I could go on talking about the great ideas, good screenplay and superb direction only to demote them to the B-Movie level of intelligence and originality that this film sometimes delivers. All in all, I'll have to give this film 5/10...bordering on 4.
I'm just glad that I downloaded it instead of forking out money to see it in the theater. Money I could use for bats and water bottles (just in case)