Very overrated and stupid

Rating: 3/10 (2 March 2016)

This movie is really bad. Nothing makes sense, the people make stupid decisions, and the aliens are absolutely brainless. The child actors, while they can cry on screen, are terrible. Any time they're not crying is atrocious. At one point, something pretty scarring happens to the children, and there is NO EMOTION. Given context, you would agree with me in saying that the kids should AT LEAST act a LITTLE shocked. And then there's the camera-work. The camera-work for the most part is alright, but those shots where the camera swoops across during a conversation or something mundane drives me crazy. There's nothing in this movie that you can't find anywhere else. The aliens look generic, the setting is cliché, and most importantly, the main twist makes NO SENSE. I'm not going to spoil it here, but it is literally the most BACKWARDS THING you could imagine. Like once you see it you'll be wanting to beat up M. Night Shyamalan. I honestly don't see why so many people like this movie. The only redeeming qualities are Mel Gibson's and Joaquin Phoenix's performances, those are actually pretty good. But other than that, there's next to nothing good here. I mean, some of the camera-work is alright (aside from the aforementioned swooping thing,) but sometimes alright camera-work doesn't make a good movie. Everything is overdone, overlong, and too predictable for my liking. Avoid this at all costs.