Faith-test film that gets a bit cheesy

Rating: Null/10 (11 October 2009)

Good performances by all. Weird and failed script, though. The film uses space aliens to test one man's Faith in Catholicism. Apparently, a defrocked priest, played by Gibson, takes a wife and has three children. Since the priestly character is never erased, I'm not sure the Church, at least of the past, would have blessed such a union. But these are confusing religious times, and particularly for Gibson in his own real life.
So along come the aliens. And in a flashback, an Indian friend of his (played by M. Knight himself) down the road is spooked by one of the aliens at night, locks the baddie in a pantry closet, gets in his car and proceeds to speed wildly down the road until he hits Gibson's wife who was out for a walk. She's alive when he gets there, and has advice for the kids - particularly for the oldest, 'see the signs'. She probably didn't mean the space aliens who set in motion the events of her death.
Meanwhile, in a previous scene, Gibson has met the Indian friend who is fleeing the area for a lake - the aliens don't like water, he says. And he apologizes - I'm just soooooo sorry - again for killing his wife. Presumeably, with all the space aliens around blocking what at the time were analog TV and radio signals, the guy was released. So he takes off for the lake.
And that's the test. Gibson says he's lost the Faith. He dutifully blames God, sez I'ze-hates-ya, and whatever else. It's all God's fault. Yet there's miraculous deliverance at the end. And Mr. defrocked, living in sin, apparently takes up the collar again and goes - where? Does this 'Catholic' have his own ministry, his own separate congregation (sort of like . . well, like Mel has)? Test - test passed? I . . guess. Was that the plot M. Knight?
And then the aliens are gone. While there, they were War of the Worlds types, sneaking about and trying to capture people. A film about on par with this except for all the fx, the Cruise remake of WotW pretty much depicts the space aliens of this film, as well, at least in terms of behavior.
But M. Knight should have stuck with Wells. He made sense. Bacteria and viruses. That might even sneak into a suit, which they didn't even wear in the Cruise film. Here, they're never seen but for a glimpse in sunlight. But they look like grey mummies just out of the sarcophagus. Either that's their moldy all-together, or that's one goofy space-suit.
At any rate, apparently their Achilles heel is water, even just a few drops. People here have pointed out the difficulty with that. Put a few drop of water on them, 'suit' or no, and it's like stomach acid or something. But, they attack a planet that's mostly - water. They fly around in spaceships at an altitude with cloud vapor - water. They hang around in the middle of the night and early morning. Water. Early morning dew. And where they reach out violently to grab people in some scenes, when Gibson is strolling through his field of corn at night with only a sometimes working flashlight, apparently with aliens hiding all around, not one single grab. I guess M. Knight must have thought light scared 'em before he hit on water.
Such a cheesy film. This M. Knight was once thought to be a great director about to make a name for himself. And I think Signs was even well-reviewed at first. Looking at it now . . .