My 2 cents....

Rating: Null/10 (8 August 2002)

I enjoyed it. I didn't let myself get too hung up on the "plot flaws" and all, but the one thing that nagged at me was to lack of "Shyamalan'esk" elements to the film. He is big on leading you down a path that isn't what you think.
Then the possibility hit me. Paul Tempke's comment (see in this comments section) may be right. The movie was marked with very small (and some not so small) items that just didn't gell. As if it were a dream, i.e. an environment where the thought process of least resistance was the way the world worked.

*** spoilers ***
Water was the big weapon; the Aliens just hauled up and left in the end; the fact that the picture in the Extra-Terrestrial Book, of the house getting zapped, was there house and an adult and two children were on the ground. Plus, what was with all the funky shapes cut into the door or boards or whatever that was when the family came out of the basement?
People are getting on M. Night Shyamalan because he "fell short" on this film. I'm suggesting that he went even deeper and most of us are just not picking up on it. But then again, what do I know?