A waste of time, a waste of talent...

Rating: 1/10 (1 September 2002)

It is obvious enough to anyone who watches "Signs", that as a child, the writer/director, M. Night Shyamalan, absolutely adored Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind" and "E.T". And rightfully so.
But as a grownup, we could at least expect him to show a little bit of novelty. In "E.T." we've already seen someone running through a dark corn field, holding a flashlight, looking for the extra-terrestrial. We've already seen common people preparing for the historical encounter with aliens in "Close Encounters" and in many other films. We've already seen the aliens hover above the world's main cities in "Independence Day" and alike. So why does Shyamalan repeat these scenarios in such a boring fashion???
If he want's to show that "anything Spielberg can do, I can do better", well, he can't.
In "The Sixth Sense" he had a great original idea. In "Unbreakable" the idea wasn't that great, but at least it was original. "Signs" brings the promising director/writer to a sad low-point.
It is a conservative, righteous and annoying story about a father and his son. The aliens are just guest stars who drop by from other movies, better movies.