The Worst Movie of the Year, and one of the biggest Clunkers of All Time

Rating: 1/10 (24 February 2003)

I normally don't post reviews of movies I hate, but when so many people seemed to have loved this film and fallen victim to Shyamalan's shyster film making tactics, I feel I need to voice my opinion.
Yes, I understand that this was in actuality a film about faith and family. I also understand that the "crop circle/alien" aspect of the film was simply a tool to simultaneously get people in the seats and test the faith of the story's characters. But does that mean that all of the gaping plot holes involving the aliens (which I will not list here because so many other posts already have pointed them out) should be forgiven? Of course not. Regardless of the director's motives regarding the aliens, this is still bad movie making. There are also many plot holes involving the family (which have also been listed ad nauseum).
Plot holes aside, it's still just a flat out lousy movie. Shyamalan takes himself and his stories way too seriously. He thinks way too highly of himself. He wants to be the greatest director of this generation, a hybrid master somewhere between Spielbergian sentimentality and Hitchcockian thrills. He also seems to be repeating himself already with his past three films in trying to perfect a new genre--the tear-jerk thriller. I think Shyamalan is capable of making good movies. "The Sixth Sense" was a decent, well crafted, well acted film, although not nearly as great as many propose. He can also make interesting films. "Unbreakable" was probably the only film where I was totally enthralled by the first hour or so, and then flat out hated the film by the last half hour. "Signs" could have been a decent B-movie (even if it was still about faith and family) but Shyamalan approached the material far too reverently, as did all the actors. Just because a movie is about faith doesn't mean it is good, or even well intentioned. Again, with his supposed twist of an ending (and what a wretched ending this movie had), Shyamalan seems to think every movie has to have a twist (and a moral). "Sixth Sense" had a good and appropriate twist. "Unbreakable" had an appalling and ridiculous twist (ewww...it was actually a comic book movie BOOO HISSSSSSS) and "Signs" has a completely inept and unnecessary twist, that really isn't a twist at all. In fact, this really wasn't a movie at all. This movie was neither scary nor touching, nor well made nor well intentioned. There isn't a rating low enough to indicate how much I hated this film.