Signs Without Wonder

Rating: Null/10 (12 August 2002)

"The world is informed by some kind of universal intelligence of scarcely conceivable power, complexity, and aesthetic subtlety, yet one to which the human intelligence is akin, and in which it can participate" -- philosopher Richard Tarnas.
Signs, the latest thriller from the director of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, is about Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) who leaves his ministry after a car accident renders him widowed and devoid of faith. Strange things start happening: crop circles mysteriously appear in his backyard, the family pet's suddenly strikes at his children, and strange static emanates from a baby monitor. In addition, unidentified flying objects and hostile aliens start turning up around the world. I won't say any more than that about the plot, but you get the idea.
Signs had me on the edge of my seat. ready to tear for the exit.

I thought I would give this film a try, since I have been deeply interested in the crop circle phenomenon for many years. I figured if I could make it through the seven or eight trailers, I might have a fighting chance of surviving the multiplex experience. Once again, I succumbed to the hype, thinking that Signs was going to be a thoughtful treatment of a serious issue. What I found was just another recycling of all the shopworn thriller cliches and "hostile alien" stereotypes that permeate the studios.

Signs does not attempt to even try to understand the complexity of the UFO phenomenon or the unearthly beauty and mystery of the crop circles, even though a prominent crop circle expert, Colin Andrews was an adviser. What seems to have escaped the Signsmakers is the realization that the universe truly is full of magic and wonder, different from the frightening images in which we have been carefully taught to believe.
Repeating clichés about hostile alien invasions as is done in Signs trivializes unexplained phenomena that has great dramatic potential. M. Night Shyamalan, to me, seems interested only in exploiting the burgeoning interest in the paranormal to market his thoroughly pedestrian and unimaginative commercial product.
Signs doesn't even deliver on its own terms. I found it to be neither entertaining nor suspenseful, and the ending to be laughably melodramatic.

All signs point to a bad day at the multiplex.