"Signs" that M.Night is losing his touch?

Rating: Null/10 (5 August 2002)

Hopefully not. Not liking "Sixth Sense" too much, and falling in love with "Unbreakable" I approached this movie having been to both ends of the shamylan spectrem. After having seen this, I was still confused on what Night was trying to do. ****MINOR SPOILERS**** Mel Gibson plays a former Reverend who loses his faith after his wife is killed in a traffic accident. When these aliens come he discovers why all sorts of tragic events in his life happened. But with all the mish mash in the second act, you realize that its like an hour and a half set up for a one second punch line. I think Night was confused too. He's not sure how he wanted to tell the story. The best part is that when this alien invasion is going on, we never stray from the main characters. We only hear about the madness from T.V. and radio. The music is also first rate. I think James Newton Howard is going to be the next John Williams. Just listen to the opening credits to this movie and the score to Unbreakable. Simply magic. As a closing statement, I would like to let you know that Night wants his movies to be like feature length "Twilight Zones" and with that in mind you have a little more respect for them. But it's certainly not enough. Hopefully, he'll do another Unbreakable. That's great way to make up for this.
RATING:**1/2