Dead people, superheroes and now aliens. M. Night Shyamalan has really covered the bases of science fiction within his first three films.
Signs stars Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix and they are two brothers that live on a farm. One day they discover these crop circles in their corn field, but this symbol doesn't just appear in their field. The same symbol appears everywhere around the world and if you know anything about science fiction, that's a dead giveaway sign that aliens are coming.
Now this is not your typical alien invasion flick. Shyamalan kind of did what Spielberg did with Jaws: He didn't show what the creature looked like until the finale. I found that very interesting because doing something like that intrigues the audience and gets their attention.
Keeping with typical Shyamalan, the pacing is slow and most of the film is dialogue base. The movie really doesn't get going until at least half way in, but if you've enjoyed M. Night's first two movies and didn't get bored, you'll be fine with the pacing in Signs. Even if the pacing bothered you, the actors won't. Mel Gibson gave a very realistic portrayal of what a father would do for his kids and brother during an event like this. Joaquin Phoenix is great in almost everything he stars in so this goes without saying.
The biggest gripe that I have is the plot twist. I felt that it really wasn't a twist or a surprise. The aliens weakness is water. I just don't buy that. If they die when exposed to water, why in all of time and space would they come to a planet that is 75% water?!?! Taking in the fact that they're aliens, you would think that they would have some scanners on their spaceships that could detect if there is any water on the planet. That seems like the logical thing to do if you are an alien race and you plan to invade and conquer a planet. You better check that the planet you plan to invade doesn't have an abundance of what can kill you. It felt more like a convenient ending that was completely last minute.
Final Report: I still think that Signs is a good alien invasion movie even though I wasn't a fan of the ending.
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