well.

Rating: Null/10 (9 October 2006)

I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed it because I'm blessed with the ability to hang my understanding and knowledge on the peg outside the room and just slump into the plot, with no care for how and why...
Most people are, it seems. Look at the reviews for One Million Years B.C. Now there's not a person alive who's had any rudimentary education who can accept the co-existence of dinosaurs and humans, and yet here, no-one seems to give a damn. Protesters are labelled as anal-retentive pedants who don't know how to enjoy themselves. personally I have a lot of trouble with the dinosaurs/humans issue - it's a lot easier to accept aliens, dragons, breathing in outer space with the aid of "oxygen pills' (good grief!!) but the dinosaur thing is just not viable no matter how you try and rationalize it. I still managed to enjoy the film for its other charming strengths, though.
Signs is O.K. if you suspend your natural objection to daftness for the duration of the experience. It's cute, with a hint of terror. Nice little subplot..
Unfortunately the nice little subplot is wrapped up in Gibson's peculiar need to abase and mortify himself publicly to pay for whatever guilt he imagines he has, and this continuing thread is what's giving most of us trouble in accepting all the unexplained stuff.
I think we can accept outrageous premises in films quite easily. Cartoon characters are immortal, etc... What gives us real trouble is when we are asked to accept a belief system that extends beyond the film itself and has maybe demonstrated itself to cause problems in the real world. If a film were made that biographed Hitler and which showed Nazism in an apparently positive light, how many people could enjoy it? I believe I could, because I don't have to subscribe to the idealism of the protagonist. I also believe I'm in a minority because most people seem unable to divorce an argument from its presentation, as witnessed by the number of times I've attempted to prosecute an argument by examining an antithetic argument in order to test the rhetoric and have been attacked for my views, even though I was clearly presenting the argument as a contrary one.
Hang it on the door and enjoy the yarn for what it is, like listening to an Old Time Radio Play. You don't have to buy into Gibson's superstition or get bricked in by the logical flaws.