Not recommended viewing for intelligent life

Rating: Null/10 (2 September 2002)

I have the unfortunate handicap of scrutinizing the premise and plot of films as I watch them. This would not be advisable when watching Signs. The film was a bit like religion in general (itself a sappily inserted subtext of the film)--scratch the surface (i.e. read up a bit on religious history) and it all starts to crumble like a house of cards. The concept behind Signs was utterly unoriginal (Aliens invade the planet), and to make things worse, the 'monster' was about as good in terms FX quality as your average B-monster movie from the 50s - one could have mistaken it for an attempt to mock those old movies, but that could not be the case since the film took itself so *very* seriously when it came to the Religion thing, which made it all the more sappy. And what happened to M.Night's absolutely brilliant twists at the end? The plot of this film essentially progressed *exactly* as one would expect. The only funny, original, or unexpected about this film was the jokes cracked by the two kids - though even those were few and far between. Three Big Alien Thumbs Down.