Extremely weak

Rating: Null/10 (1 September 2002)

I was very surprised to see such an ordinary theme in Shyamalan's latest movie. The leitmotiv in his two prior movies dealt with how the protagonist comes to terms with an extraordinary ability, while in "Signs" its about a priest who has lost his faith and how he finds it again. But instead of using the development of the protagonist as a theme, Shyamalan chooses to tell the story about an alien invasion and how its affects the protagonist and his "faith". If you look hard you may find some submotiv about if events are accidential or destiny (as in "Unbreakable").
Even more surprising is how weak the visual construction of the movie is. Despite some stunning compositions, especially in the early stages, Tak Fujimoto's skill seems wasted. The compositions are flat and at certain points almost banal.
The story itself takes alot for granted without informing the audience of it, but worse, it has elements which are so coinsidential that they belong in a bad b-movie. For instance, the only bookstore in town has one book about aliens and that book is perhaps the most insightfull book ever written, since it predicts everything which the aliens later do. Another example is when Gibson encounters the alien, locked up by Shyamalan, who for some reason knows they dont like water, he basicly leaves it be and doesnt call the police. "Signs" has many coinsidences which function as nothing but a temporary suspence/scare motiv.
Overall a extremely weak movie, which has none of the originality that "Six Sense" and especially "Unbreakable" had. I cant help feeling that this was an amazing pitch that was rushed thru production and never found the time to mature into what it may have been.