Review of Signs (2002) by Kyle20Ellis — 01 Apr 2022

This was a movie I wanted to like, with its cast and great idea, and also that I loved The Sixth Sense and liked Unbreakable very much. Shyamalan has definitely done worse than this though with The Happening, Lady in the Water and The Last Airbender(I'm watching The Village as we speak and presently it is difficult to judge whether I dislike it or not), but this was a disappointment. Signs does have some good values, such as a genuinely tense first fifty minutes or so, very good cinematography and score and credible turns from Joaquin Pheonix, Abigail Breslin and Rory Culkin.

However, what promise Signs did have is almost completely squandered around the halfway mark. Shyamalan's direction is uneven here, first it's alert and tense and then it became lazy and lethargic. The script has an uneasy mix of cheesy and maudlin, the characters generally are underdeveloped and the story either suffers in the second half from also being underdeveloped or even worse not making much sense.

Although Mel Gibson has done worse performances than this I found his performance rather laboured here, doesn't help that his character doesn't engage or that some of the worst dialogue is with him.

What disappointed me most about Signs was that after such a good start, it is spoilt by scenes that come across as too mawkish and over-sentimental than genuinely poignant, creaky flashbacks that severely undermine the suspense and the truly ludicrously melodramatic ending. Not to mention some glaring and even in some cases unforgivable plot holes, particularly the aliens being killed by water.

All in all, disappointing. I liked the performances, visuals and especially the tense, spooky atmosphere created at the start, but it just got lazy.