Well Executed

Rating: 8/10 (10 August 2003)

Rating: 8 out of 10. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. I have to say that before seeing this movie, I was bracing myself for a disappointment due to mixed reviews. I must now say that I found the movie to be quite remarkable, well executed, and nicely crafted. M. Night Shyamalan rightly deserves respect for putting out a film with a lot of his personal touches instead of putting out something that people expect to see. While `Signs' will have scenes of the traditional or convention variety, it is the ambiance of the scenes that is unique.
Shyamalan made good use of the films lead actors. Mel Gibson as recent widower Graham Hess, and Joaquin Phoenix as the younger brother Merrill Hess are both well cast and interesting to watch. They both brought a lot to the movie. Shyamalan himself has a somewhat key supporting role in the movie as well.
It was a good choice to make the movie focus on the Hess family instead of the global distress of an alien invasion. The few times that we did see an alien during the middle of the movie was really frightening. Especially the first time Graham Hess (Gibson) sees one right outside the window of his children's bedroom. I believe we see an alien (or part of one) seven times in the movie, and the first six appearances were only for a split second, at first I was dissatisfied that we didn't see more. Yet in hindsight, less appearances of an alien does accomplish more for the movie.
We never find out why the aliens were invading, but the viewer does realize that they were hostile. Here is one qualm that I have with this movie, it seemed a little illogical to me that the aliens would think that humans wouldn't realize their (the aliens) weakness since this substance is so abundant on our planet.
`Signs' really held my attention and I highly recommend it. In fact, I look forward to seeing it again.