Someone should have warned us!

Rating: 6/10 (4 August 2002)

I wasted a beauty of a deal on this movie! My boyfriend agreed not to try to scare me at moments of high tension or be subjected to viewing three romance movies of my choosing. He behaved but was never truly tested because this movie didn't deliver on what was promoted in the trailers. Other than momentary startles, this invasion movie has only slightly more suspense than Bedknobs and Broomsticks!
Spoilers below!!!
This movie is first and foremost proof that you should never reveal too much about your methods if you intend to use them again. The "making of" documentary about Sixth Sense let all the tricks out of the bag. From the moment Mel Gibson sets down the water glasses and we see them strewn about the rest of the room, I knew they'd be key to the ending. Also, I wonder if MNS ever saw Day of the Trifids?
Mel Gibson as a shell shocked, slow moving, and at times slow-witted farmer didn't work for me, not because he wasn't at his best, but either the script or the editing removed almost all evidence of the character's ability to reason. For instance, where was his call to his friend the police officer to let her know about the alien in the pantry or to give her the "fingertips"? Was it to save us from enduring more monotone delivery from her? (And how did the alien get out of there in order to reappear later?)
Are we really to believe there would be no reporters or hordes of the curious appearing in his corn fields? The horror of protecting his farm, his family's privacy and his kids from strangers would have made a more frightening movie than this one!
With one exception, the movie outcome was predictable from the get-go. The brother states in the recruiting office that he has his prize baseball bat at home. The only surprise at the end of this movie is the baseball bat being in his brother's living room instead of his own. Shouldn't it have been in his apartment as he said? He didn't take it with him to his brothers with his pillowcase full of belongings. I was expecting that and looked for it. (Also due to seeing that "making of" program.) Besides, when would he have mounted it?
Some things were great about this movie, it's just not the movie they advertised. The last movie I saw that did this was The Abyss, which I will forever call The Abysmal because of it. They should have had more faith in their movie and audience and promoted it for what it really was - a tale about faith and struggling back from devastating loss while facing the possibility of another.
The acting of the family characters as a whole was great. The kids were extraordinary and Joaquin Phoenix got a new fan. The distraction of the Alfred Hitchcock-like appearance of the producer wasn't welcome but will probably end up as a good trivia question someday.
Moral of the tale? Don't brag too much when you do it right! Not if you want to ever surprise your audience again!