Not worth the movie ticket. Sad but true. Lowest rating.

Rating: 1/10 (19 August 2002)

I must warn everyone that this movie is really, really weak. It relies mainly on cheap "noise shocks" to make the audience jump. The characters are quite unbelievable, and much of the plot is senseless.
HERE COME THE SPOILERS. Some Signs apologists will try to say that this movie is not about the aliens. I can see why they would say that, because this main plot line is atrociously thought out, and utterly indefensible.
You have the Earth being invaded by aliens whose intelligence gets them all the way through space to our planet, with ships capable of cloaking themselves. But then, that's where the genius stops, quite abruptly. You see, they have come to a planet that is 2/3rds water (which is toxic to them) in order to "harvest" human beings, who are also mostly water (hence water present in their dwellings). Human beings also have a proliferation of weapons, and yet what do the aliens bring, besides their gangly bodies? Nothing. (BTW, I love how a humanoid body strong enough to jump up to the roof of a farmhouse can't kick down a pantry door!) Their natural weapon is a gas-emitting spike on their wrists. That's all they use! Not a very wise choice for conquering the Earth now is it? And what makes them think they could rely only on their "poison gas" to harm us, when our basic physical properties are so different? Finding out whether your only weapon works after traveling light years to the battlefield is not very wise.
So where do these practically unarmed geniuses land, after their "recon" mission is complete? Among other places, the United States, the most effectively armed nation on Earth. Wouldn't it make more sense to go "harvest" the more defenseless humans in Africa, who have practically no infrastructure? Well it might, if the writer/director had worried as much about the story as he did about getting Mel Gibson to cry for him.
The aliens use mere radio waves to communicate (did the FCC give them authorization?) to each other, which somehow doesn't alert the military, who could at the very least have started jamming it. But hey military, shmilitary, this director is afraid of guns, so the defenders of our nation get no mention.
Another archaic tactic the aliens use is marking targets with- tada! crop circles! Nobody will suspect a thing about these giant areas of crushed crops, will they? Of course not! And using a less obvious, more technologically advanced method of designating targets (we already do it with lasers or GPS) is out of the question.
But wait, maybe the aliens aren't the dumbest folks around this town! How do you like the fact that Mr. Gibson knows there is an alien trapped in some guy's pantry, but doesn't call the cops! I can understand if he's a wimp and doesn't want to open that door to take on an alien himself, but at least call someone who will! Great, just leave it for someone unsuspecting to find...
This is an over-riding theme in Signs- leave everything up to someone else. Mel leaves the alien in some fool's pantry, then goes home and boards up his house. He doesn't even take steps to arm himself so he can protect his family. Do you know anyone else as useless as that? Would you leave it to the rest of the world to protect you from the aliens who are in your house looking to kill you? Shammie fails to create a believable character. It's also hard to picture the sunken-chested, narrow-shouldered Joaquin Phoenix being a home-run champ. He's a cool actor (8mm) but an athlete he is not.
Sure there's some good crying and flashbacks to a dying wife, but did director/writer Sham have to use aliens to tell it? Of course not. They implied the supernatural/alien plot in the trailers to pack you into the theater. From there, it's every sucker for himself...
Don't support junk movies! You deserve better!