the them of faith done for ages 5-7.

Rating: 4/10 (9 January 2003)

Well i just saw signs for the second time on dvd and i must say my opinion has not changed. I think it's way to simple and it's view on faith is way to simplistic and kinda dull and pandering. I like alot of how the movie is filmed though. I think it builds tension well and has some creepy and somewhat scary moments but in the end it's paper thin story just does not give much reason to care. For it to have worked as a thriller it needed to be much more dark and driven in its structure i think.
M Night says he based it on "the birds" and "night of the living dead" and "invasion of the body snatchers(1956)", but it comes across more as "Watcher in the woods" but without all the thrills and violence that watcher had. You think I'm kidding but I'm not. *****Possible Spoilers***** The them of the film which seems to be the ability to regain your faith after tragic things have happened in your life or how people keep faith in thier lives has been done much better in other films. I would say david cronenbergs movie "CRASH" is about how people keep faith in a world that seems devoid of things to trust or believe in. It shows this very well and in a very interesting way without lying to audience with sappy rhetoric. Speaking of which i think "It's a wonderful life" sappy as it is is a much better film about the same thing. It has much more character and feeling than Signs even attempts to. Also films like The addiction and Bad Lieutenant provide questions and answers about lost faith in much more honest terms. I don't know what i was supposed to get out of signs but i would much rather watch invaders from mars myself. if anyone else got something out of this more than the overly simple theme then kudos to you because i dont think the director is clever enough to put more into it and having just watched the documentary with the dvd, called making of signs, he proves my point. Lets hope Mr. Nights next film tries to explore something a bit deeper than this one did. Don't get me wrong the themes of faith and losing one's faith are deep but the way they are treated in Signs is not. A great comparison to find out what i am talking about would be to watch the other films i listed right after signs or better yet watch mike leighs "Naked" that should get ya thinking.