Mediocre and way too many loose ends!

Rating: 5/10 (16 September 2002)

It seems to me that Shyamalan cannot make up his mind whether he wants this film to be a horror movie, a suspense thriller, or a Sci-Fi flick, as it has elements of all three, but unfortunately fails at all three!
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The movie does have it's moments, and is not terrible as some viewers have indicated, but there are so many unexplained circumstances and loose ends that it left me feeling very empty.
First of all, I think it's a total cop-out that Shyamalan never really explains why these aliens are here, but only gives you possible reasons so that you have to guess for yourself - now that's poor movie making!
The second thing that struck me as totally implausible is that these aliens have the superior technology to come all the way to the Earth, hide their ships with a "shield" technology, and yet have no sophisticated weapons of any kind with which to fight us!!
The next problem, which to me makes no sense whatsoever, except for Shyamalan to be able to make this movie continue, is the fact that Mel Gibson's character and his family stay in a totally isolated area right near one of the crop markings when he knows that by doing so he is potentially putting himself and his whole family in mortal danger! Uh Duh, maybe if we leave and go to an urban area we can get some help!?
The final item however truly takes the cake. We supposedly have a very superior, sophisticated alien race (who by the way never heard of clothes), who has some kind of deadly reaction to water, yet they come to a planet that's about 70% water!!! I guess their technology was unable to determine that the Earth not only has massive oceans, lakes and waterways, but has a simple thing called RAIN!!!
I'm sorry, but this totally blew this movie for me, and as I liked both The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, I have just one piece of advice for Shyamalan, please stick to those type of films and for the sake of true Sci-Fi fans like myself, do not attempt any more Sci-Fi flicks, it's not your bag.