Starts out great...fizzles in the end. Quite disappointing.

Rating: 3/10 (12 May 2003)

After seeing Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, I was all for Signs. The trailers were excellent and compelling enough for me to want to see the movie as soon as it came out. Of M. Night Shyamalan's movies, this by far, ranks at the bottom.
The story starts out quite strong...slowly building the background, developing the characters, and dropping hints for the viewers along the way. All of the actors did a fantastic job (save M. Night who really was rather flat and should stick to simply directing)...even the McCauley brother - who seems to have gotten all the talent of the family. For the first 45 minutes to an hour the story is intriguing as are the characters. A sort of eerie suspense can be felt building from quite early on in the movie. Through dialogue, development, and flashbacks, you begin to learn that this is more than just an "alien story".
And then it starts to fall apart.
**WARNING** Spoilers!! Do not read further if you have not seen the movie!
I was on the edge of my seat, sharing Mel Gibson's fear of what was in the cornfield. The newscast of the alien "crashing" the birthday party had me scream almost as loud as Jaquin Phoenix. I was prepared for the movie only to get better. Unfortunately, it simply didn't hold up to the first half the movie.
The aliens attacking the houses and the suspense that built up during that time as the family was holed up in the basement was incredible. I love movies where you can be scared without having to be shown exactly what is scaring you...to me it is much more effective. For this part of the movie, it worked.
Of course, this is also when the "cheesiness" comes into play. The little boy starts having an asthma attack, yet, OH NO his medicine is OUTSIDE of the room...very reminiscent of Panic Room. However, for the sake of further developing Mel Gibson's character, I cn overlook this part to a degree. Then, just as it's getting good, it all stops. Um, ok. Well, I guess it had to somehow. So basically, the aliens are defeated. How? Water. Perhaps the world was being overtaken by bad witches straight from Oz? So, I have to then ask myself...why would aliens wish to "take over" a planet that is 3/4ths water when it is water that kills them? Furthermore, what would they do if it suddenly started raining? Or what about the dew on the grass in the mornings? I mean, COME ON! This was simply a cop-out "we can't kill off the main characters" ending that did not gel with the direction the story WAS taking us. It was simply too easy.
The story fantastically began drawing us in, living through the hopes, fears, regrets, sorrow, and hardships of each of the characters and yet ended so disappointingly. I wanted to like this movie...but in the end, it was just, well, stupid.
For entertainment value, I give the movie a 4 1/2 out of 5. For compelling storyline, however, I can only give Signs 3 out of 5. It really could have been better...considering what M. Night has proven he can do.