Worth seeing, if you pay attention

Rating: 10/10 (2 August 2002)

God, I hope M. Night Shyamalan makes a hundred movies.
I really can't believe the critisism this movie has received on this site. I walked out of the theory having been thrilled, excited, provoked to *think*, and thoroughly satisfied on every conceivable level. I laughed. I jumped. No, this movie does not have the alien ships chasing after us as ID4 did, or the grand spectacle of contact that so many other alien movies have centered on, but you'll have to forgive it for being original. Instead, the movie centers on a single family and their reactions to a potential alien invasion.
*** Possible spoilers ***
It's like the Sixth Sense in that, if you think about what happened in the film in a greater context than those people who were in the film, it doesn't make much sense (I mean, it's great that he tricked the audience into believe he was alive, but do you think he could go that entire length of time - I believe it was eight months - without talking to anyone, or realizing something unusual?). All of his movies are a gimmick used to bring another aspect of human nature to light. But the gimmick isn't the pay-off. I mean, if you expect some great revelation into the nature of aliens, you're not going to get it. If you want some revelation into the nature of human spirit, then pay attention.
I do have a few points, just interest stuff (and one critisism):
I always find it interesting when a film portrays any ambiguous spiritual pay-off as pertaining to a particular belief system. In regards to this film, there's really nothing in the Christian faith that would support the concepts of fate and signs as promoted by this film. It could just as soon promote Hinduism, Islam or Judaism. But this is a trend I've seen a lot of recently. Simon Birch, for instance. Or even The Testament, one of the latest John Grisham novels. Both have ambiguous religious ideas which the characters translate into some broader religion, which implies other beliefs. But perhaps it's just the world's latest trend to promote this sort of ambiguous spirituality, that the underlying principles of religion are worth living by, but they manifest themselves in many ways. Perhaps we're supposed to become Ba'Hai. And make no mistake, I'm not criticizing the movie - I sort of like the idea - I just find this sort of thinking interesting.
However, M. Night should promptly turn on the television and see how a *real* news report is structured. I laughed every time the television was turned on. I mean, we've all seen reporters reporting during crises, like 9/11, and they do not report like that. They do not get all huffy and puffy and try to incite the viewers with slow-paced lines about how terrified everyone is (especially with a trembling voice). They give the facts, usually with a straight face. That's what they trained to do. The reports here looked like they were being narrated by the guy who does the voice-overs for The Outer Limits.
Matty J