The Other Signs !

Rating: 7/10 (4 February 2010)

It is the best among M. Night Shyamalan's movies that I watched yet. It wasn't laughably fabricated like (The Village - 2004). It wasn't the real disappointing (Unbreakable - 2000). And most of all, it can be viewed for a second time to savor its high-minded concept unlike his previous, ironically more popular, (The Sixth Sense - 1999).
I love it when the genre movie carries a message. So how about a spiritual message as well. (Signs) is about believing in fate, and its genius wisdom, which's beyond the human mind. But it is where the best of it is the meaning of its story, while the worst of it is the way this story was handled. Simply, the mix was uneven.
The first half was outstanding on all the levels. The second half looked like a humdrum where the horror wasn't made well, the scene in the basement was dead, and the aliens seemed phony. Yet I was sadder for the dealing with the invasion matter, since I wholly saw it - as the same - before, being Shyamalan's frank and shameless rip-off from H. G. Wells (War of the Worlds). Generally, this second half was sick of laziness. That made it a bit poor and boring.
Undoubtedly it is one of the most important roles that Mel Gibson had. And he was the highest element in the movie. Maybe most of the financial success ($227,965,690 gross out of $70,200,000 budget) came from the idea of Gibson's being, and for the first time, in a horror. But there weren't more super elements. Maybe some moments of the direction, the low tone pace, and the astonishing intro music by James Newton Howard; which kind of reminded me of (Psycho - 1960) intro music by Bernard Herrmann, in terms of the running time and the clever horror.
Though, I still have faith in (Signs). I believe, this time, Shyamalan wrote this beautiful tale, then made the mystery around, while he concerned, in other movies, about the mystery first. It says a lot about paying more attention to the other signs. The signs of the omnipotent presence of God, and the complicated plans of fate. It is not another movie about the thrill and the horror of evil-creatures-attacking-peaceful-home; it's about that as just a calamity, which we must face and, most significantly, learn from it about higher issues. As if Shyamalan says how pathetic if we thought about signs of aliens, ghosts, superpowers.. etc, and forgot thinking about the signs of God. So this is why it will live longer, being the most valuable among Shyamalan's works and any other Hollywood nonsense.
Just look at the lovely last scene. It pushed me to ask why this wasn't made while Jamie Stewart was alive. This kind of tales, concerning returning to faith, was in fashion at the old Hollywood. Here, it only wore new clothes. Thank God that the flaws didn't spoil, totally spoil, what is beneath them.