the biggest let down of the summer of 02

Rating: Null/10 (9 September 2002)

Now now, don't get upset. This movie was far from the worst (I can't tell if that goes to MR. DEEDS or EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS) but as excited as I was for this movie, I did not walk out of it the happiest person on the block. First things first, M Night is a remarkable director. That hasn't changed at all. The movie did still scare me, but so did his other movies (with the exception of WIDE AWAKE, which I also enjoyed), but his other films left you with something more to think about. This was nothing but good direction, good acting,and no point whatsoever. SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Now, I'm not one of these people that are upset because there really was no HUGE TWIST ENDING a la UNBREAKABLE or THE SIXTH SENSE. In fact, I choose to look at it as though no huge twist ending was the huge twist ending. And like I said, the acting is great from everyone involved, and there are some genuine thrills, but for a movie that based it's entire marketing strategy on the crop circles angle, the pretty much left it in the dust. What we are left with is another INDEPENDENCE DAY told from the point of view of one family. The biggest letdown was the ending. Started off good with the basement scene. When Joaquin's character knocked the lights out, I was shocked, and excited. I was looking forward to a great battle scene filled with only sound, letting your mind fill in the picture, but no, the kid miraculously finds a light in about 30 seconds and it's business as usual. and that whole "SWING AWAY" thing at the end made me want to puke. Beat the thing with a bat and through water on it. I can almost be sure that M NIGHT did no studying of aliens or outer space of any kind and just wrote from the heart. It works well on the family plot lines, but not on a very involved subject such as this. Give the movie a try, Half of the people like it, half don't, but I was just looking for something more. C-