Not M. Night Shyamalan's finest, but good.

Rating: 7/10 (29 May 2005)

On the surface, Signs is an alien movie where the human race comes to contact with a foreign life form. Signs might have had a rather large budget, but it doesn't make it a big Hollywood spectacle. This means that there isn't a lot of scenes with the aliens nor does the scenery change much from the farmhouse that the family of Mel Gibson's character Graham Hess lives in. This is intentional.
The reason for this is simple: Signs is really about family, faith and coincidence. It is clear that M. Night Shyamalan is a man of vision and good taste. As scenes with aliens are scarce, every glimpse of the invaders has a bigger impact. Signs isn't about cheap shots with well placed stingers or visual horror, but relies on its haunting atmosphere that is created by the uncertainty regarding the aliens. Not until the very end does the viewer begin to learn the first things about the invaders. For me, this worked very well and kept me interested throughout the film. However, some viewers will find Signs boring for this very reason.
If the film hadn't been directed by M. Night Shyamalan, I doubt that Sign's would have turned out as good as it did. As the film contains a few dramatic scenes, it comes very close to being corny or cheesy, but Shyamalan manages to pull it off.
So why only 7 points? Well, to tell you the truth I can't think of a reason why I didn't like it more. Sixth Sense totally blew me away, so expectations were naturally high on this one. 7 points is definitely not bad and there certainly isn't anything wrong with the film. Signs is just one of those movies that are "OK" and you can't really explain it. I found a lot of good in it, but maybe that just wasn't good enough.