Signs

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This movie is definately M. Night Shayamalan's best movie. I didn't like Unbreakable, but I do like the Sixth Sense. Signs though, is my alltime fav. One of my fav. movies ever. What do you guys think?



I agree with you 110%.

One of the reasons I love Signs is because the movie felt very realistic. I like the scene where Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) is sitting in the closet watching the news and the alien is finally revealed on the home video, his reaction was so realistic.



Sidewinder's Avatar
I ate all your bees.
I really liked signs because it was unlike any other Alien movie I have ever seen, it was very atmospheric (excuse spelling). Some of my friends were dissapointed cause they were expecting some big twist at the end but I enjoyed it for what it was.
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His best work, but, that doesn't say alot. Unbreakable was awful, boring and The Sixth Sense was ok, but nothing special.
WARNING: "Signs-Kind of...me bitching really." spoilers below

The whole signs thing was so illogical, why would an alien visit and terrorise a planet that is over 80% its weakness? How did it move around, I mean, natural humidity would have some sort of effect.



Originally Posted by Philmster
His best work, but, that doesn't say alot. Unbreakable was awful, boring and The Sixth Sense was ok, but nothing special.
WARNING: "Signs-Kind of...me bitching really." spoilers below

The whole signs thing was so illogical, why would an alien visit and terrorise a planet that is over 80% its weakness? How did it move around, I mean, natural humidity would have some sort of effect.

Good point, I never thought of that! Well, I'm not going to fret, but I will think of that every time I watch the movie.
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It was beauty killed the beast.
A heavy handed and poorly thought out hunk of poop. Shyalaman ratchets up the suspense like a master but when the balloon finally bursts it is nothing short of a disaster. In the end nothing concerning the aliens makes any sense at all, and the only thing we're left with is Shyalaman's disempowering agenda.

Blah!
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I’m going to have to go with Kong on this one… when I first watched Signs in the theater, I thought it was pretty good although there were a few things about it that bugged me… but after I watched it again on DVD… I was very disappointed... not only do the aliens not make any sense to me but the people's actions/reactions really bothered me too...
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Originally Posted by Kong
A heavy handed and poorly thought out hunk of poop. Shyalaman ratchets up the suspense like a master but when the balloon finally bursts it is nothing short of a disaster. In the end nothing concerning the aliens makes any sense at all, and the only thing we're left with is Shyalaman's disempowering agenda.

Blah!
Again, I couldn't disagree with you more.

(I hate to do this, but I agree with just about everything Ebert says in this case, and he sums it up better than I can....here is a link to his review: Signs-**** out of ****)

Anyway, here are my feelings:

This is MNS's best film, and is a great, entertaining, lovable movie. He employs his usual Hitchcockian suspense, and the movie is thrill packed, but all of this is a backseat to the characters. It functions best as a character study and a love story (familial love...not incest...as I know someone was going to chime in on that). The Television scenes were very well handled, as were the flashbacks. Throw in great acting, a great script with great characters, a moving story, and a beautiful ending, and you get (regardless of the small plot hole) one of my favorite movies of all time.
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Signs was truly not a movie about aliens, it is a story that could have been told with or without them. It is a story of a family that is trying to make it through a very difficult time. They suffered a huge loss and life has decided to throw just another curve their way. The aliens are secondary to the storyline. True I think maybe the aliens could have been portrayed better, and I would have liked it better had they never even showed them. Overall I liked it, and if you go into it looking for a movie about a family loss and how it is delt with by good people, it may mean more.
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Only for the weak
Well I think the script has it's weakpoints. But what I like about it, when you watch the film you feel the suspense, and you may jump in fright at times. And most of this suspense comes when there is nothing there, that shows a great film-maker. Tension builds over the smallest things, and we get freaked out over glasses of water. It also has a few good moments of witty dialogue to boot.

A few minor flaws aside, I think Signs is a great movie and is Shyamalans best.
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Kong and I have discussed this in the past. I think there are some very solid defenses available to the alleged plot holes in Signs. See the posts below for more:I don't believe I ever replied to Kong's response in the first thread. If anyone's interested in furthering this discussion, though, I'd be glad to.



Imagination has left the happy bubble that is our brains. Why, why, why. Why must we know the answer to everything? Sometimes we arent supposed to know. Maybe the aliens werent alergic to water per say, maybe it was the chlorine in tap water, or minerals in the water, or bacteria in the water, or whatever. Why cant they knock down a pantry door yet jump 12 feet? why, why, why, why..Maybe the one and only alien that you saw trying to bust the pantry door down was injured, hurt, sick, tired, stupid, didnt try it yet, whatever. The answers to these questions were either supposed to be left to the imagination or just never answered in the first place. They were not important to the storyline, think of the movies minus the aliens. Lets say it was a russian invasion and their weakness was budweiser, offer them one and they lie down and pass out from drinking too many. Story is the same.



It was beauty killed the beast.
Originally Posted by 7thson
Imagination has left the happy bubble that is our brains. Why, why, why. Why must we know the answer to everything? Sometimes we arent supposed to know. Maybe the aliens werent alergic to water per say, maybe it was the chlorine in tap water, or minerals in the water, or bacteria in the water, or whatever. Why cant they knock down a pantry door yet jump 12 feet? why, why, why, why..Maybe the one and only alien that you saw trying to bust the pantry door down was injured, hurt, sick, tired, stupid, didnt try it yet, whatever. The answers to these questions were either supposed to be left to the imagination or just never answered in the first place. They were not important to the storyline, think of the movies minus the aliens. Lets say it was a russian invasion and their weakness was budweiser, offer them one and they lie down and pass out from drinking too many. Story is the same.
The aliens weren't important to the storyline? Are you kidding? Did we watch the same film? The aliens might not be important to the thematic elements of the film, but they are not only important to the story line, they are the storyline! The aliens play a major role in the film and Shyalaman wrote them very poorly. They have so many contradictory characteristics: they're super smart and really f**king dumb, extra strong and very weak, blah blah blah.

Now, just because the aliens aren't (according to you guys) thematically important doesn't mean that anything goes and Shyalaman's lazy writing should be excused, especially when the thematic meat of the story is insultingly heavy handed. Anyone who didn't catch Shyalaman's message in Signs must be brain-dead. Maybe Kong has seen to many sappy sentimental films, because he sure didn't see anything new in the thematic department here. It's really no different than watching an episode of Oprah.



I agree with Kong entirely. Summed the whole crap-fest up entirely.



I see it a different way, doesnt mean either of us is wrong. BTW here on Earth we have dumb people and smart people, so i guess all aliens must be extremley genuis, not just a small portion.



Lets put a smile on that block
Originally Posted by Beale the Rippe
Anyway, here are my feelings:

This is MNS's best film, and is a great, entertaining, lovable movie. He employs his usual Hitchcockian suspense, and the movie is thrill packed, but all of this is a backseat to the characters. It functions best as a character study and a love story (familial love...not incest...as I know someone was going to chime in on that). The Television scenes were very well handled, as were the flashbacks. Throw in great acting, a great script with great characters, a moving story, and a beautiful ending, and you get (regardless of the small plot hole) one of my favorite movies of all time.
i totally agree with you Beale, very welll put. i absoloutly Love this film. MNS has to be my favourite director.

Originally Posted by Kong
The aliens weren't important to the storyline? Are you kidding? Did we watch the same film? The aliens might not be important to the thematic elements of the film, but they are not only important to the story line, they are the storyline! The aliens play a major role in the film and Shyalaman wrote them very poorly. They have so many contradictory characteristics: they're super smart and really f**king dumb, extra strong and very weak, blah blah blah.

Now, just because the aliens aren't (according to you guys) thematically important doesn't mean that anything goes and Shyalaman's lazy writing should be excused, especially when the thematic meat of the story is insultingly heavy handed. Anyone who didn't catch Shyalaman's message in Signs must be brain-dead. Maybe Kong has seen to many sappy sentimental films, because he sure didn't see anything new in the thematic department here. It's really no different than watching an episode of Oprah.
I totally understand what your saying here, the aliens are obviosly the main focus in the plot but i think what MNS was trying to do was create a situation that he could show a families reactions to the unexplianed. In each of his films he chooses to focus heavily on the main characters actions and emotions surrounding a subject (always supernatural/extraordinary) and even though he uses these Hitchcock-like techniques in delivering his scary and suspense filled moments, Signs i think, is ultimatly about a families reactions to these aliens that turn up. Sure the details around the aliens strengths and weakness's are sketchy to say the least and its true maybe he was a bit sloppy when he created them but i dont think that really matters. What were suspossed to focus on is the families reactions to them being there and the coincidences/signs that save them in the end.

Originally Posted by Kong
Maybe Kong has seen to many sappy sentimental films, because he sure didn't see anything new in the thematic department here. It's really no different than watching an episode of Oprah.
I love sentimental sappy films though. And MSN puts this on pretty heavy in all of his films but i have never once thought its too sappy...Unlike Oprah....i dont like Oprah...oh no.
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It was beauty killed the beast.
Originally Posted by 7thson
I see it a different way, doesnt mean either of us is wrong. BTW here on Earth we have dumb people and smart people, so i guess all aliens must be extremley genuis, not just a small portion.
Kong will ignore the hyperbole here and just say that the aliens behavior on earth did not seem to match the intelligence that would seem implicit in a race that can travel great distances in space. For instance, these aliens can travel the millions of light years to earth but somehow forget to put on suits when entering an enviroment that they know his acidic to their flesh. They can apparently read minds and yet they stick their fingers under a door for no discernible reason even though they know that an angry human enemy is on the other side with a knife. They plan on subjugating the human race but they don't bring any weapons save for some closerange biological arm thing that appears to be effectively useless. Should Kong continue?

These problems may not bother some people, and others may generate some explanations that they feel suitable with, but Kong just sees a weakly written plot device. To Kong, it's just insulting that he's supposed to come up with some flimsy rationalization to explain away problems that the writer himself obviously didn't care about enough to fix. If Shyalaman doesn't care about making his movie make sense then Kong doesn't care about watching it.



The Mad Prophet of the Movie Forums
98% makes sense for me, so I didn't have a problem with it.



jamesglewisf's Avatar
Didn't see it.
I agree that the aliens weren't the main point of the movie. The main point of the movie was a man getting his faith in God back.

I thought it was excellent. It had a lot of humor, suspense, and drama. I just watched it again yesterday.
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I loved Signs. I believe it is the best of Night's movies and I will watch it over and over and over again. . .

. . . HOWEVER. . .

. . . I do have some issues with it.

First and foremost: Farmers need and use guns to keep animals away from their crops/livestock. The fact that Mel Gibson didn't seem to own a gun raised some serious believability issues for me (I know, I bought the idea of aliens but not that! Get over it!)

Secondly: Call me hung up on firearms if you will, but let me get this straight: A bunch of NAKED aliens come UNARMED and expect to harvest the planet? Come on! I know the idea was, "If the aliens use arms then we would move to nuclear war and waste the planet," but think about it! If we're losing the battle, we're gonna nuke the crap out of them even if they don't use firearms!

Thirdly: Surely the aliens knew that WATER (the most abundant resource on our planet) was harmful to them. They sent in scouts to check the place out! Did they just neglect to mention how water hurt them? Why didn't they take precautions?

Lastly (more minor): Whatever happened to a priest's vow of chastity? I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with the vow, but if he was a priest why was he married with children?