Needs to be seen in the theater

Rating: Null/10 (29 July 2004)

There are movies that come along every once in awhile that are so powerful in the theater, but upon a second DVD viewing it doesn't work at well. Signs is the best example of this I have ever seen.
Spoilers Included
I saw this movie on its opening weekend in 2002. When the movie ended, I could not get out of my seat. I literally had to sit there for a minute and take in what I had just seen. No movie had ever done this for me before. Granted, I am generally a fan of older movies, so I never saw most of my favorites in the theater. However, seeing Signs in the theater is an experience I won't soon forget.
The movie starts out with Mel Gibson living with his brother and two kids on their Pennsylvania farm. We learn his wife has died. Has anyone else noticed Mel Gibson's wife has died in at least 8 of his movies? Early in the movie, crop circles appear in his corn fields. Make no mistake, though, this movie is not about crop circles as the previews lead us to believe. This movie is about an alien attack in the mold of Close Encounters. Where the movie's power comes through is in the reveal of the creatures. The first time the creature is seen, it is as a silhouette on top of the barn. Honestly, you can't even tell anything's really there until you pause your DVD. Shortly after, a leg is seen when Gibson's character shines a flashlight on one of the crop circles.
I am not a huge Shyamalan fan, but the moment in which the creature is finally seen is filmmaking genius. Because of what has happened earlier in the film, we are searching through the bushes trying to get a look at another leg, or an arm, then BOOM, the creature appears in full view across your screen. At this moment, the whole theater lurches backwards about 3 feet. At the end of the movie, there is another great reveal of the alien which I fortunately saw coming, but that just made it cool instead of scary.
The power of these moments is enough to make Signs one of the best movies of the past view years. The movie, however, is not without it flaws. I'm so tired of the child yelling "I hate you" to the parent for no obvious reason. Apparently, Hollywood screenwriters have different kids from the rest of us, because I have never heard a kid do this, but it happens in 90% of movies with children. The final showdown with the alien is a little silly, but overall this movie will leave you scared, scarred, and full of emotion.