Good production values but no originality and little vitality.

Rating: 6/10 (8 February 2004)

Crop circles appear in a farmers field, but are they the work of aliens or practical jokers?
The very mention of crop circles as a plot device sends shivers down my spine. Everyone knows they are made by sad people with planks of wood working in the middle of the night. That is apart from the simple circles that are caused by freak mini whirlwinds. Here we are expected to throw away such knowledge and start down the route of "maybe, just maybe."
Mel Gibson plays an ex-priest turned farmer who has lost his faith after the tragic death of his wife (oh flashing lights and heavenly choruses - will this come in to play later in the film!?). He lives on his semi-isolated farm with his two children and his brother and seems to have an ideal rural life before he becomes bothered by night time invaders who don't seem to be able to be caught.
At several points this film fails to make any sense. This is America and better still an American farm and yet no guns are available. Equally this is a story where the real story is elsewhere, broadcast on TV and only partly explained. While not wanting to take on any film that goes down any route in telling a story - if you want to tell a story about "overcoming" then there are many routes. Why this one?
What can you say without being a spoiler? Very little. If you have seen Close Encounters, War of the Worlds and The Birds then you will get the general idea of what the film is about. Although all the above films are good, I don't rate any of them as being classic because they are such simple plot devices that only work by expensive special effects.
Here we have cheap special effects of the "rattling doorknob" variety that almost bring to mind a cheap Hammer horror film. There is, sadly, nothing new to offer just a lot of something-is-about-to-happen that, bizarrely, even the actors don't seem to be taking seriously!
(Although how people act under real stress might well seem silly - so maybe I have to qualify that.)
There is nothing really wrong with the film in terms of acting or production, but we have been here before. The director (Shyamalan) needs a bit of help - he is taking on too much himself. Taking an acting role in this film is by far the biggest mistake. He created a modern classic in the Sixth Sense, but - on the evidence here - he is running out of ideas fast and merely forming greatest hits tapes from other people's movies.