Well-composed but the sloppy ending and illogic are unforgivable

Rating: 6/10 (19 July 2006)

M. Night Shylmalan is excellent in one, and ONLY one, area of film-making  namely in establishing a tense mood in his films. This is done throughout Signs just like it is done in The Sixth Sense and in Unbreakable. There is a certain slow and suspenseful pace achieved through devices such as visuals and score that builds up great tension in these films and this is indeed hard to rival, and for that, Mr. Shylmalan deserves some credit. At everything else, however, he is simply not that good at.
This is, you guessed it, another suspenseful mystery thriller with a twist or two  this time with sci-fi elements. It is the story of crop circles outside a family's home in Pennsylvania and all that these bring with them. If you disregard the fact that these crop circles had in reality been exposed as a sham well before this film was made, then Signs makes them seem pretty scary. Again, the mood and build-up are paid great detail to and this will definitely keep your attention unless you have ADHD. Some visuals from Signs have remained with me, like the first time Joaquin Phoenix's character is watching the news in the closet and it shows footage of one of the aliens, captured at a birthday party in Mexico. The moment the alien walks pastand it is not even a momentis one of the scariest visuals I can think of.
My problem with Signs is that Shylmalan is convinced that any "mystic" idea that pops into his head will automatically translate into a compelling mystery story on screen. He is so convinced, in fact, that he goes to great lengths to invent his own absurd logic to facilitate his story. For example, what lead to the demise of the alien invasion: "They're allergic to water". Alright, so now we know. Except it's not POSSIBLE to inhabit earth for a minute without getting exposed to the water vapor in the air, or running through corn fields without getting the dew on the leaves of the cord. Seriously, they're allergic to WATER? This has to be one of the biggest cop-outs in film history.
Because the resolution of Signs is so disappointing, it detracts from the otherwise suspenseful and well-crafted moods. No doubt the majority of the things in this film work quite well and this earns an above average rating - but the sloppy ending and its illogic are unforgivable. 6/10