Shayamalan's best picture yet, I left the theater uplifted.

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 2002)

It sounds stupid to say I left a science fiction movie uplifted, but the movie isn't really about alien invasions at all. It's about Faith, a base belief in human beings that life can be better than it is, hope for the future and acceptance of the past and present. A belief that there is a reason for things to happen the way they do.
I keep reading reviews saying the ending of the movie left people hanging. I think they are missing what M Night was trying to do with this film. The movie doesn't answer alot of questions about the aliens, and I think this is why people say the ending is abrupt. I don't think the movie is about the aliens at all. It's about what happens when a man who claims to have lost his faith has just that put to the test. Mel Gibsons character is meant to provoke something in all of us. His character is designed by M Night to hold a mirror up to our lives, and reaffirm that good things can happen and that maybe things do happen for the best. I think he wrote this movie to give people hope.
Shayamalan used the Aliens (in brilliantly chilling fashion to test the Faith of his character in the movie. Obviously, a scary alien invasion will test a man's character. Shayamalan found a great way to put his character to the test, a really frightening one, and a topic that keeps you interested. He could have told the same story with no aliens in it, it just would have been billed as a drama and less people would go to see it. He used scary aliens to sugar coat a story that many viewers wouldn't see otherwise, a really smart move, and a great result for us!
My guess is he (M Night) wants people to identify with mel Gibson and make that emotional journey with him as the movie progresses. Do things happen for a reason? Is there and grand scheme of things? Does life have a point or purpose? These are the topics Shayamalan was focusing on when he wrote the script, and I think that his hope was just to get people thinking about what they believe. What the director believes is pretty obvious by the end of the film but I won't ruin the ending for those who haven't seen it. The point is, this movie will move you emotionally, and scare you to death at the same time, and I can't think of any other movie that can say that. What a ride, absolutely fantastic filmaking!