Scary, Restrained, Falls Apart

Rating: Null/10 (12 August 2002)

SPOILERS*****SPOILERS (somewhat):
Shyamalan's newest film has much in it that works and he is to be commended for what he DOESN'T show - the tiny glimpses of the aliens were much more effective than the usual "Hey, look what we made on a computer! Doesn't it almost look three-dimensional and alive??" In fact at one point when a video shot at a birthday party reveals a quick sighting of one of the aliens - well, that was incredibly eerie. This young director might have the misfortune of making a classic so early on in his career (Sixth Sense) and thus will forever be compared to that - much like Orson Welles with Citizen Kane (Even though I like Magnificent Ambersons and Touch Of Evil even better than his first opus.)And I really must take to task the one poster who totally dismisses Sixth Sense as crap because, he, the great genius of the world, figured out that Willis was already dead. Well, good for you, but just because you figured that out does not take away the fact that Shymalan still wrote a tightly crafted, smart and clever ghost thriller. How's your screenplay going? Why don't you try it. In the times of Scream 3's and gazillionth Halloween movie, the fact that someone is even trying to scare you with sound and character as opposed to what a sharp implement can do to the human body is most welcomed. Now, back to Signs - I thought the first hour was incredibly well made and unfortunately, once he set up this incredible story - you have aliens coming to earth - well, what are you going to do about it? And to just have the news come back that"hey, guess what - the aliens are leaving!! Woo hoo!!!" Well, that's just lazy storytelling. And it also was just so pat and easy that Gibson gets his faith back. But, setting up the Gibson character and his struggle with his faith and his battle with his oldest son was powerful and interesting and well done. Overall, the acting is the real strong suit to this film. Gibson (who can just put it on cruise-control) gives a great performance as does Phoenix. And the always dependable Cherry Jones does some fine work - especially when she has to tell Gibson the horrible new about the accident. So on a scale of 1-10 I give this a 6.