Too easy and formulaic.

Rating: 4/10 (22 August 2002)

*Warning Spoiler*
I can only assume that the real point of the story is Mel Gibson's character regaining his faith in God, as the rest of the plot is so thin that it can only be considered a convenient prop for the main story line. Unfortunately this piece of the movie doesn't work either. If his change of heart were to have any real meaning it should have been based on something of more substance than a string of coincidences such as his son's asthma protecting him from the poison gas or the baseball bat on the wall coinciding with his wife's dying words. Why not just have his Alpha-bits spell out "Hello Graham, this is God, and I do exist"? If Shyamalan had guts and was willing to forego the typical happy Hollywood ending, it would have been more effective for the family to face a much more believable sad end at the hands of the aliens, but for Graham to find his faith through the examples of his children and brother, the memory of how his wife faced death, and his own internal resources. On the plus side, Abigail Breslin was charming as Bo and I enjoyed the cinematography by Tak Fujimoto with the crop circles being frequently echoed by such things as the Hess' driveway, the baseball field in town and the throw rug in the living room. Overall 2 stars out of 5.