Im an absolute sucker for Science fiction movies. I will go see any movie if it has even the slightest hint of spaceships or aliens. But even a sucker like me has his limits. This latest offering by director M. Night Shyamalan ("Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable") leaves me wondering why so many people consider this director to be so great. In a movie that plays out like a low-budget, poorly written episode of the X-files, we are tossed into the life of an ex-preacher Graham Hess (Mel Gibson). He lives with his two children, and his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix).
Plot Summary ------------
Near the beginning of the film, Graham Hess discovers strange circles in his cornfield. These same circles are then discovered all around the world, and we discover later that the reason for them are for the aliens to map out the terrain. Presumably so they can invade more efficiently.
Strange things then start happening at the Hess household. These same strange things are replayed
all over the world, and they are telling signs of the impending alien invasion.
There are several parts near in the first half of the film where the camera zooms in on close ups of characters as they deliver witty lines and verbally spar with each other.
The only problem is, they forgot to give them the witty lines. The result of this is that the actors are forced to deliver poorly written lines that seem as though they are meant for characters of much lesser intelligence.
I am not sure why these awkward scenes do not work. It could be poor writing, poor directing, or just trying to rush through a scene while the actors were still uncomfortable with thier lines. Whatever the reason, these scenes are terrible and drew me completely out of the movie.
In one example, Graham and Merrill are on the couch watching the alien invasion on T.V. while the two kids sleep on their laps. Merrill asks Graham to help give him some comfort regarding the invasion. Mel Gibson then delivers a 3 minute speech about People who believe in luck, and people who believe in higher meaning. The intent of this is to comfort his brother and try and help him cope with what is happening. At this point, Merrill is comforted by Grahams words. Scene should have ended here.
Instead, Graham then goes and talks about how everything is luck and there is no higher power, and by doing this undoes everything he said in the last 5 minutes. This scene was out of character and awkward, and just did not work.
In another example, since they all think that it is going to be the last night on earth, Graham acting as a good father tells his kids that they can have whatever they want for dinner. So they cook up this very elaborate and wonderful dinner, and while they are sitting down to eat, the son Morgan asks if he may say a prayer.
Graham then gets really upset and yells at the kids, and then tells them all to eat thier food. When they dont (They are crying) he then takes some of everybody's food and eats it himself. Again this scene was so outside of Graham Hess' character that I was immediately drawn out of the movie and didn't believe it.
To summarize, some of the dialog in this movie is out-of-place, out-of-character, and just plain poorly written.
What's Good About it? --------------------- There are some very scary scenes in this film. This director, as poor as he is with characters and dialog, this is inversely proportional to how good he is with making a scene very frightening.
Even though the special effects were lacking (Honestly, I swear that they used rubber alien gloves five times in the movie, you only see the alien twice, and the rest of time you see the alien rubber glove) the movie makes the best of its poor effects by it's use of darkness, shadows, and anticipation. The result of all of this is a very scary ride.
Mel Gibson is very good in this movie, but I think that the material was probably written for an actor that we expect to see play a much dumber character. Most of Gibson's roles have been about fairly smart, very witty characters, and this is not the case with Graham Hess. Perhaps Billy Bob thornton (Slingblade) or Tom Hanks (Gump) could have played this role more convincingly.
The Cast -------------------------- Graham Hess - Mel Gibson Merrill Hess - Joaquin Phoenix Morgan Hess - Rory Culkin Colleen Hess - Patricia Kalember Bo Hess - Abigail Breslin Officer Caroline Paski - Cherry Jones
The Final Word -------------- If you like movies that scare, you will like this film. But if you are like me and once drawn out of a movie have a hard time falling back into it, I wouldn't recommend this movie for you.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
I agree. This should have been a good movie and had a lot of promise in many areas but the down points brought it right down.
offy 13.09.2002 21:19
Interesting and well written review, but not damning enough to put mee off wanting to see it.
Luigi 03.09.2002 02:12
An interesting viewpoint! I thought this film was very good, not the best I've seen, but still v.g., and I have to say I missed the "rubber gloves" of the aliens! No mention of the good performances by the Hess children, or officer Pulaski, even though they're included in the cast at the end? Thanks, Luigi.
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Advantages: Makes you think...and keep on thinking for ages afterwards, it has Mr Gibson in it, superb directing Disadvantages: A bit scary to be rated 12 - and all that thinking made my brain hurt
Collingwood21 12.10.2002 (12.10.2002)
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