More signs of his limitations.

Rating: Null/10 (15 January 2008)

While I enjoyed 'The sixth sense' it didn't impress me enough to rush out to see Shyamalan's further efforts so I've only just belatedly got round to watching 'The village' and 'Signs' on the BBC and what struck me about both was their resemblance to padded and drawn out episode ideas for the 'Twilight zone'.
On the positive side Shyamalan has an undeniable talent for building suspense and delivering a decent creepy scare or two, sadly however a film needs a coherent and (at least nominally) believable plot to go with said atmosphere and here Shyamalan's limitations (at least in 'Signs' and 'The village') are there for all to see.
In 'Signs' we have the intertwined plot lines of Gibson losing/regaining his faith alongside an alien invasion and both are seriously flawed.
The (laughably absurd) problems with the aliens are so plainly manifest and have been mention so often I won't bother going into them again which leaves Gibson's (equaly absurd) regaining of his faith.
First of all it's so thickly layed on it makes the film seem distastefully preachy. It's not as if it isn't possible to portray redemption subtly without the film coming over as a thinly disguised metaphorical sermon (see 'It's a wonderful life') which is, of course, what this film essentially amounts to. Then there's the characteristically perverse behaviour of 'god'...apparently to teach Gibson a Job'ish lesson his wife has to die horribly along with untold numbers of others as Earth is invaded by hostile aliens. Now I don't know about anyone else but that seems just a little over the top to me, clearly 'god' was having one of those old testament days. Even if we skip the wider implications and focus solely on Gibson's epiphany apparently 'god' has gone old school again in getting a message through to Gibson that his brother should arm himself (something both he and Gibson had unbelievably failed to do throughout) and beat a fellow sentient being to death...you can just imagine Jesus sitting next to his Dad sadly shaking his head.
So much like 'The village' this effort starts well, builds up effectively but eventually, when it matters, collapses into such absurdity as to make it simultaneously annoying (as all that is good about it seems wasted and you feel conned) and genuinely laughable.
Seems Shyamalan was a one trick pony after all.