Signs of a Lazy Audience

Rating: 7/10 (27 August 2002)

When I left the theatre after seeing SIGNS, my first reaction was, "What an incredibly accomplished build-up this movie had--and what a disappointing ending."
Having had time to think about it, I now see I did what a lot of people (including some in the user comments below and above) did.
I didn't judge this movie on its own terms.
This movie is not THE SIXTH SENSE. It was not supposed to be THE SIXTH SENSE. If people want another SIXTH SENSE, they're only deluding themselves. There will never be another SIXTH SENSE. So move on, people. If you want Shyamalan to just make the same movie over and over again, you are only wasting your time and his.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Okay, I admit it. When the aliens finally arrive, they are a failure. Although one person in the user comments came up with the ingenious explanation that what we saw were actually only bioengineered warriors working for the real aliens, the fact remains that reducing an alien encounter to extraterrestrial Morlocks looking for human food is not worthy of the superb buildup Shyamalan accomplished through the first three-quarters of the movie. But maybe the point is, NO ending could be worthy of that build-up.
Or maybe the point is, the movie wasn't about the aliens after all.
**END OF SPOILER ALERT**
This movie won't leave me alone because the response to it by so many people points out the big problem with movies today.
The audience.
How can filmmakers make "the quality movies they USED to make" when the audience won't let them? Some people have pointed out that Shyamalan made the crisis of faith for the Mel Gibson character an alien invasion because that was the only way to get the audience to go see the movie. I think it's more complex than that, because Shyamalan wanted the crisis of faith to concern a personal encounter with the ultimate challenge to faith, the end of the world.
Still, the ball is being put in the audiences' court. Do we want movies to affect us in personal ways anymore? Do we want them to ask questions about deeper issues like faith, love, or the universe around us? Or are we only out for the big bang now, and any movie that doesn't deliver that big bang makes us pout like toddlers.
Some people want to dismiss this movie because it didn't "deliver". But I can't. I don't want to.
This movie tries to say something about us. Don't we want that from a movie anymore?