Waste of time and money

Rating: 1/10 (12 August 2002)

M. Night Shyamalan lucked out with The 6th Sense. Unbreakable was a harsh disappointment, and now Signs is even worse. Shyamalan seems to have a problem with building a plot. He has excellent ideas, but when it comes down to assembling an interesting movie that actually makes sense, he falls quite short. His "plot twists" and "surprise endings" are getting worse and worse.
Let's break this movie down. Forget all the amazing similarities to Panic Room (child who requires regular medication?). Forget the cheesy lines. Forget the wasted "suspenseful" scenes where Mel walks around outside, tells his dog to shut up, and returns to the house. When you strip all the inconsistencies and all the fluff, you are still left with a disappointing movie with a empty plot and poor excuse for a "surprise ending".
I was expecting some sort of a revelation. Maybe my hopes were too high, but the movie essentially being about a greater power telling everyone to hit the alien with a baseball bat fell short. And don't get me started about the aliens. Who invades a planet composed primarily of water, buildings, and humans with basically unarmed beings who cannot open locked doors, melt like the witch in Wizard of Oz, and can be beaten to death by any guy wielding a bat? All of this while wearing green spandex, and carrying poison gas devices with a range of 4 inches?
If you were going to create a movie based on faith and preordination, why pick such off-the-wall elements? To prove that even the most strangest of coincidences can become clear in the end? I howled with laughter when Mel exclaimed his hopeful "that's why he has athsma; his lungs were closed". It was obvious that Shyamalan was trying much too hard in this one.
I wouldn't even give this film a "wait-for-the-rental" reccomendation. Don't believe the hype, it isn't worth your money.