Still waiting for a good film from Shyamalan

Rating: 1/10 (27 December 2002)

Warning: Spoilers
The first major idea presented is that crop circles really are of extraterrestrial origin. The true, hoax origin of crop circles is acknowledged in the film, and then quickly brushed aside by the fact that in a mere 72 hour period, 18 crop circles were made in India. Surely that is beyond the possibility of human behavior! Just do the math! In the film it says it would take a 2-3 person team 1 night to make a typical group of "circles" in a field. So over 3 nights, that would require 6 2-3 man teams, or a total of 12-18 people in on the hoax. This, in India, which has a population of over 1 billion people. Also, we are told that they are being used as "markers" for the extraterrestrials to use when their invasion begins. This, from beings who are obviously very technologically advanced, being able to travel at very high speeds across space. All that technology, and to remember where they want to go on Earth they're still relying on forming patterns in crops which will only be visible about half of each day.
Next we are told that the extraterrestrials are probably here to take over the world in order to exploit its natural resources, having depleted their planet's natural resources already. This is believable enough, as if the film was set 200 years in the future, I can easily see it being turned the other way around, with humans as the invaders of the alien world. It's also suggested that the aliens will rely on hand to hand combat so that our nuclear weapons will not be of value in stopping them, which is another believable idea. Not content with believable ideas, it turns out that the only weapon the aliens have is the ability to emit a small amount of poison out of their wrists, having traveled across the galaxy and evidently forgetting to bring any serious weapons. Near the end of the film, without the aliens having made any real attempt to take over Earth, they inexplicably go back home, just as quickly as they came.

This film does raise some interesting questions, though.

At one point, the comment is made, first by Morgan, then a few moments later by the newscaster, that "Everything people have written about in science books is going to change." This is a rather profound statement, but it is probably false. While information from an advanced civilization might give a few insights that would have taken science a few more decades to find out, the bulk of chemistry, physics, geology, and even cosmology and astronomy would be unaffected. We might get a few more organism made elements at the end of the periodic table and a few refinements of current physics, but the rest of our knowledge of these subjects would more than likely be unchanged. Biology would probably be the most heavily affected science, as we'd have evidence of biological organisms that are possibly quite different from us, and this could shed great insight on common principles of Evolution throughout the universe.
Also, while much attention is given to human beings and religion, the subject of religion is ignored in relation to the extraterrestrials, which is a source for many questions, such as: Were the aliens theists? While they were above the major cities in their cloaked space ships, were they praying to their God(s) for success in their invasion in order to claim what's left of Earth's natural resources? Or, perhaps the extraterrestrial invasion had nothing to do with our natural resources but rather was a cosmic proselytizing mission, in which the extraterrestrials, with empirical evidence for their God(s), were simply trying to share this evidence with us so we can stop worshiping our false Gods and start worshiping their true God(s).
And perhaps most importantly, was "swing away" good advice, let alone so good that there was any reason for thinking it was of divine origin? That is, is there any good evidence to suggest that a God would have a man fall asleep at the wheel and kill an innocent woman so that she could utter the last words "swing away," which would be interpreted by her husband, 6 months later, that this meant her son Merrill should beat an extraterrestrial in their living room to death with a baseball bat? No. Merrill owned 5 records in minor league baseball, one of which was the record for the most strikeouts. He probably would have made it to the major leagues if he didn't recklessly `swing away' as he did. It is not plausible that without those last words Graham and Merrill would have been unable to defend their family. Indeed, it is amazing Merrill didn't grab the baseball bat much earlier in the film. Also, it would have been an ideal time to heed Colleen's last words when the family was in the basement by having Graham open the door suddenly and shine the light in the extraterrestrials eyes while Merrill swung away at the extraterrestrials head with the pickaxe.

In the end, the film isn't really about humans fighting off invading extraterrestrials or even extraterrestrials, but rather about using coincidences to support a belief in God. With this as the main premise, the whole extraterrestrials thing becomes not just completely superfluous, but incredibly deleterious to achieving this goal. For, if the writer's goal was to make a film about using coincidences to establish faith in God, then resorting to saying that a hodge-podge of hoaxes and unlikely ideas are also real diminishes this goal. Thus, instead of using extraterrestrials so that Colleen's last words can have divine meaning, it would be better to have a human burglar break into the Hess home, at which point Graham tells his son Merrill to "swing away" with a bat to protect the family. As is, this film provides nothing but silly, even if fanciful, ideas and scenarios about crop circles, extraterrestrials, and God.