Hey folks, Harry here... I deleted the final LOOOONG paragraph of Hanny's synopsis part of the review so that that information wouldn't even be online. In fact, I managed to cut that cancerous batch of spoilers without even reading it myself, I just saw where that paragraph was headed and decided, it needed to go... it had no critical statements positive or negative in regards to the film, it just was revealing way too much. SO it is gone. Having said that... this is still a bit too heavy with the ol step by step writing style. But it isn't shown how things wrap up. Which is good. Can't wait to see this one, and remember... be cool, don't spoil films!
Hello Harry! Hanny here with a look at SIGNS! I was originally supposed to see the new Halloween movie on Tuesday night but fate would have it that I ended up seeing Signs. Not a bad twist of fate at all.
This is a very good movie, not an excellent movie. There were a few things that i had problems with that I will touch upon at the end. Beware of spoilers!!!
Gibson and Phoenix play brothers raising Gibson's young son and daughter. His wife was killed by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel of his car . The scene of the accident is shown gradually throughout the movie using flashback scenes and that driver who can't keep his eyes open is played by none other than M. Night himself. Gibson, a reverend, loses his faith in God and turns his back on his religion. Joaquin Phoenix, Merril, is a former minor league baseball player who holds 5 home run records but also holds the record for strike outs. Mel's daughter, Bo, is a very adorable little girl with a few problems. Everytime she gets a glass of water she complains there is something wrong with it. Most of the time she says the water is contaminated and if it's not contaminated she finds something else wrong like a hair in the glass or her brother took a drink of water out of it so she no longer wants it. This causes qute a few glasses of water to be laying around the house. Gibsons son, Morgan, is older than Bo and is an asthmatic. He's a resourceful smart little lad and is played quite well by Rory Culkin.
Gibson awakes one morning to find some strange circles in his crops. The police are called to the scene but can't do much about it. Gibson suspects local boys pulling a prank but that idea is soon squashed since the suspected boys were out seeing a movie the night before. But Gibson learns from the police that the local animals have been acting funny lately becoming more aggressive. At that point, Mel looks around and says " i don't hear my children". He quickly runs towards the house and finds that the dog tried to jump on his son and was killed by an axe the son was holding.
The family is then plagued by visitors in the night. A strange figure is spotted on the rooftop of his barn one night while putting his daughter to sleep. Mel and Joaquin run out of the house but the figure is so fast that they can't catch it. This is a quite scary scene but very amusing at the same time. Again the police are called but not much can be done.
Then the news reports of more crop signs all over the world come in. The same sign in Mel's crops are now being spotted on crops all around the world. Mel believes it's a hoax but his son Rory challenges that. Rory begins to pick up weird signals on a baby monitor. The family listens to what sounds like two beings trying to communicate. Mel still doesn't believe until..............ships are spotted hovering above Mexico City and kids catch an alien on video tape in South America. Both sites on the screen got quite a reaction from the crowd. You would think they were simple boring shots but M. Night has a way of filming simple things that make you jump in your seat.
Gibson then receives a call from the man who killed his wife. The call is cut short and Gibson rushes to the man's house. He finds M Night sitting in his car almost in a daze. M. Night apologizes for what he did though it was an accident. Blood is trickling from his side as he's talking to a weaping Mel Gibson. He tells Mel he is going to where water is because he had read or heard aliens don't like water. Before he pulls off he says, "don't go in my closet, i locked one of the aliens in there", and then he speeds off. Mel's' eyes light up as well as everyones eyes in the theatre watching.
Mel of course enters the house and grabs a big butcher knife. He puts the knife under the door to try and see a reflection of what's in there when an alien hand comes from under the door. Mel jumps in fear and cuts the aliens fingers off and hustles home. There he learns that more ships have appeared above cities all around the world and the first casualties have taken place. This is nothing short of an invasion of earth with aliens using some sort of poisonous gas.
One thing i want to touch on is a scene where Rory Caulkin buys a book on aliens in a local book store. He shows Mel the book and briefs his father throughout the movie on what the author thinks aliens are capable of. Everything this author wrote about comes true, sometimes shown in a comedic way in the film. The book also told that if there was an invasion the aliens would prefer a ground invasion and not fight in the air. This of course comes to be true. Also, there is speculation that the crop signs are used for navigation purposes by the aliens. That's the only explanation for the crop signs given in the movie.
Mel decides the best way to deal with the problem is by boarding up his home to try and keep the aliens out. The aliens eventually attack the home and Mel and co. retreat to the basement. The boarding of the home , the retreating to the basement, and constant news updates reminded me very much of Night of the living Dead. I don't think it would be a stretch to say M. Night was influenced by the classic. After a skirmish with another alien hand in the basement and an asthama attack by Rory, the family gets some sleep in the basement. When they awaken there are no signs of the aliens and they decide to try and retrieve rory's medication upstairs.
SPOILER DELETED!!!!!
Overall the movie was very good. It had some very scary ,suspenseful , and more surprisingly, some very comedic scenes that fit well with the movie. I didn't much buy the baby monitor picking up aliens talking thing. I thought that was a little over board. I'm not quite sure how i feel about Rory Caulkin being able to predict what was going to happen next by reading that alien book i was telling you about. I definately did not like the final battle scene with the alien in the house. The alien just stood there like a pinata and was pummeled with a baseball bat and then dying from glasses of water laying around the house. I thought that could of been a bit more interesting and more climatic.
I do however recommend this movie. M. Night brings a very unique and interesting inavasion of earth movie to the screen. I'm not sure how to rank it compared to "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" but i can say this..I can't wait for whatever movie he's doing next!!
Hanny
