Swing away.

Rating: Null/10 (9 November 2004)

What I like about M. Night is how he never compromises his direction and the artistic rendition of the stories he wants to tell. This movie has some flaws and a glaring plot-hole. Why couldn't the aliens at least bring body armor when they knew that much of the earth is covered with water?
The first time I saw this, I was really catatonic as Night is an expert in making his motion pictures solicit for the appropriate viewer's response and reaction. He is an expert in anticipation of action. Hitchcock said "The terror lies not in the bang; rather in the anticipation of it".
For example, watch the scene where Merril Hess has to check out the house if everything is clear; and then he disappears for a moment. Or the scene in the cornfield where Mel is in the center of a huge crop circle, and the camera has Gibson's POV... anything can jump outta nowhere any second.
Second time you watch it, the film loses scare factor but it is still beautiful as Manoj Nelliyatu is always very good in framing his sequences. Watch the beautiful mobile framing when Morgan Hess is holding the baby monitor upward towards the sky. Or the medium close-up of Gibson's face centered in-frame in the final scene inside the living room right before the concluding flashback.
This film can NOT be appreciated by people who have intellectual arrogance and those who claim to have "cultured" taste in cinema. But it is very entertaining, the pacing is good. And it's beautiful.
The good thing about a movie with a screenplay that's NOT as taut as... The Sixth Sense or Back to the Future is that the helmer's DIRECTION stands out and you really see M. Night display his skill as a director.
Great string music by James Newton Howard and I suppose a round of applause should be given to DP Tak Fujimoto (Silence of the Lambs) as well. By the way, the knife that lops the creature's hand is CG, but you didn't know, did you?
I hear Night would have wanted no CG in this film, but ILM did a good job too... and that final scene in the living room? It just gets you supercharged.
The LAST scene outside is where Newton's enthralling score starts to flex it's muscle and melody but it still remains as the three-note motif you hear throughout the movie. The opening credits, done to Howard's score foreshadows the kind of experience/ or the emotions/ moods/ suspense that you will see in the film.
Signs.
10/10
although no one will agree.