- Introduction -

I spotted that this was going to be shown on TV yesterday and having seen other movies by the director (M. Night Shyamalan) but not this one yet (just never got around to watching it), I knew I wanted to make the effort to see it. I've always been pretty keen on his works and I knew roughly what to expect. I'm not sure that I'd say it was his best movie but I did enjoy it enough to be able to recommend it.

- Main Credits (non-actors, which are mentioned further on in the review) -
Source:- IMDB (see:- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286106/fullcredits)

Director - M. Night Shyamalan
Writer - M. Night Shyamalan
Producers - Frank Marshall, Sam Mercer and M. Night Shyamalan
Executive Producer - Kathleen Kennedy
Cinematography - Tak Fujimoto

- Story (incl. main acting cast) -

Signs is all about the Hess family, who are recovering after the sudden death of their wife and mother, Colleen (played by Patricia Kalember). The father, Graham Hess (played by Mel Gibson), has recently given up being a Reverend/priest, as he questions faith due to what happened to his wife. He lives at home on a farm with his sons Merrill (layed by Joaquin Phoenix) and Morgan (played by Rory Culkin) and his daughter Bo (played by Abigail Breslin).

One day he notices there are large crop circles appearing in the farm and as strange and peculiar things start to happen, such as weird noises and movements being heard. Many other crop circles are discovered around the world and soon it becomes clear that something much more creepy is going on.

Who made these crop circles? is it all a prank? is there something more sinister going on? what does it all mean? you'll have to watch the movie to find out.

- Genre/Themes etc. -

This is quite clearly a science fiction movie, quite a suspenseful one at that.

Themes present include dealing with loss of faith and belief and trying to re-connect a recently broken family and otherwise coping with loss. There's also the theme of impending doom, invasion and it being the end of the world, if those count as themes, presumably.

- My Thoughts/Opinions -

Signs is a suspenseful science fiction thriller, brought to you by the director of other similar movies like the Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and The Village, M. Night Shyamalan.

This movie has some of the usual elements of his other movies, although one thing thats slightly different is that your shown more, visually, at certain points towards the end of the movie mostly, of the aliens or presence there, though even then its mainly just glimpses.

It is a very atmospheric and absorbing movies and the cast do well at sucking you in, making you believe what they think their seeing and experiencing. In that way, its very cleverly done, given as soon as you think it through, its pretty clearly a prepostorous (sp?) situation, with talk of the end of the world being discussed on the TV, while little appears to be actually happening in the families home or nearby.

As is even mentioned during the movie, its quite like War of the World, only with much less action and its slower paced but it has the same 'end of the world' theme.

By the time the finale, as it were, the alien creastures arriving at the Hess family home comes, I'd become so intrigued and compelled to see what would happen, the movie had worked in sucking me into this rather paranoid world, where the world seems to be under attack.

I noticed that there were points, mainly towards the end, where the camera would seemingly look away, show a different angle so you couldn't see for sure what was happening. Showing, for example, the torch on the ground and hearing and seeing footsteps and noise but nothing else, its a little like the Blair Witch Project, at the end of that movie, how the camera showed the final scene, it sort of reminded me of that.

There is quite a touching scene at one point between Mel's character, Graham and his son Morgan, which is touching and kind of upsetting too, although it could also be seen as being a bit over the top and melodramatic to some.

Also I think the ending may disappoint some, in that at the end I did think it was pretty anti-climactic. However, it didn't disappoint me like the ending to 'Next' did, for some reason, so it could be worse!

- Certificate -

Signs is rated 12 in the UK. This is mainly due to frightening scenes, as it is very atmospheric and would probably scare young children, so I wouldn't recommend it to younger children but teenagers should be fine. There isn't much, if any, bad language and there's no major violence or sex or nudity present in this movie.

- Website -

The only official website I could find, can be found here:-

http://video.movies.go.com/signs/flash.html

There you can find trailers, information on the cast, a photo gallery, information on the DVD, a 'story teller' (which provides information on the director, some photos, soundclips, interview clips and production notes) and downloads (where you'll find buddy icons, desktops, a PC cursor and screensaver).

- Conclusions -

This film is similar in some aspects to both The War of the Worlds and to The Blair Witch Project, I felt. While it does spoil things to some extent in how much it shows you these alien beings right at the very end, little is shown up until then and its all very suggestive in terms of what may be out there and going on, until then, so in that respect its similar to both The Blair Witch Project and to M. Night Shyamalans' other movies. When the aliens are shown in quite a close up way, I did find this a bit disappointing, what was shown just seemed a bit silly I suppose, after all the build up to it.

It deals also, along with the science fiction side of things, with the theme of a broken family trying to become closer, or otherwise heal themselves.

However, all in all I thought, what with what were, to me, good performances from Gibson, Phoenix and the younger kids (Abigail Breslin and Rory Culkin) and a generally interesting and very absorbing story, this was a good movie and as such is worth watching. If your either/or a science fiction or M. Night Shyamalan buff, then you should definately check this out (if you haven't already). Its perhaps a bit too 'Hollywood' in parts (in that it becomes what feels a little over melodramatic and emotional where perhaps it didn't need to be) but not so much that it entirely ruins it at all and compared to some movies, its a very competent attempt at such a story, I felt.

I wasn't very impressed with the modern remake of 'War of the Worlds' but this I thought was better. I also like the fact that its a well made movie being in what would seem to be 'b movie' territory.

A bit too 'Hollywood' in some ocassional parts and the ending I felt was slightly spoilt by the visuals and how it ends, to some extent but overall I was impressed by the movie. I like how the director manages to make these movies that have such absorbing stories, where you enter a world of supernatural going-s on-s that you can genuinely start to believe in along with the characters on screen. I was impressed with the way it was handled camera wise and the way it was made gradually more suspenseful, it did seem to be very cleverly done. I think this is an example of where it pays off to have such a well thought out script, with the only exception being the ending really, I just can't say I particularly thought much of it im afraid but it somehow didn't detract from the quality of the movie overall.

All in all, I would recommend this movie, its a pretty decent movie in general and if your into these kind of movies, then you should get some enjoyment from this.

I hope you found my review useful in deciding whether to watch this movie, thanks for reading!