I actually really rather like Signs...

Rating: 7/10 (27 May 2007)

Signs is set in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) lives on a farm with his his two young children Bo (Abigail Breslin) & Morgan (Rory Culkin) plus his younger brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), one morning they discover elaborate crop circles in their corn fields. At first they think it's a hoax but there are newsflashes all over the TV which say these crop circles have appeared all over the world, then things turn really sinister when UFO's start appearing in the sky by these crop circles & when footage of an alien is caught on a camcorder the Hess family have to consider the possibility of an alien invasion...
Written, produced & directed by M. Night Shyamalan who also has a fairly big role in the film as Ray Reddy who ran over Mel Gibson's character's wife I actually really liked Signs. The script which takes itself pretty seriously could be described as somewhat slow at times but I thought the story was engaging & pretty intriguing which kept me hooked. I really liked all the character's here, OK maybe the kids are a touch annoying as they tend to be in films but I thought this was pretty well written with a decent balance between humour & seriousness. The alien invasion stuff is kept to a minimum & little is seen of the aliens themselves, this is a film where less is more & it retains a air of creepiness around the aliens. It's not big on action either & concentrates on the Hess family & almost totally ignores the outside world which is unusual for recent alien flicks which tend to be nothing more than showcase's for overblown CGI computer effects as in Independence Day (1996) & War of the Worlds (2005) so Signs is a nice change of pace, I mean there's nothing wrong with huge CGI special effects filled films but Signs was just a nice change.
Director Shyamalan does a fine job but then he had a mega budget to help him, for those looking for another The Sixth Sense (1999) will probably be disappointed as Signs is a very different film & doesn't have such a great ending. I thought there were some creepy moments here & the restraint in the usage of CGI here helps create an ominous atmosphere & leaves something to the audiences imagination which is a novelty these days. What CGI is here is very good & the alien when eventually seen looks OK if a little unimaginative.
With a whopping budget of $72,000,000 Signs obviously looks the business & has that big budget Hollywood look although that huge figure did surprise me a bit as there's not many special effects, there's only about five character's in the entire film & it takes place in the same location for the most part so 72 big ones does seem like quite a lot considering the end result. I thought the acting was pretty good throughout.
Signs in my opinion is a great alien invasion flick that tells it's story in a different sort of way, I liked it a lot although I know for a fact there's a lot of hate out there for it. Personally I think it's well worth a watch.