| For a guy that used to make crappy home movies with his dad's video camera, M. Night Shyamalan has sure come a long way. His movies are nothing short of fantastic. Rounding out the trilogy initiated by The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, Signs continues the tradition of making you go HOLY SHIT at the conclusion of the movie. Shyamalan has an obvious gift for writing movie scripts that are coherent and intriguing, as well as frightening. Signs does everything right. The characters are well-cast and interesting, the atmosphere is definitely appropriate, and the storyline keeps you totally involved. But what is most likely the greatest feat of writer M. Night Shyamalan is to keep this movie from becoming some stupid rehashed alien movie. You are constantly questioning what you saw, not sure whether to take what you just witnessed as truth (in the context of the movie, of course) or as fiction. Honestly, everyone in that theater was getting mindfucked whether they knew it or not. Signs shows you just enough to make you think you understand where the movie is going, only to have that thought stripped from your mind in the following scenes. Are the aliens real or not? Are they figments of a country preacher family's imagination, or are they real beings, intent on the invasion of Earth and the immolation of her human inhabitants? These are questions over which you get to cogitate during the course of two highly engrossing hours. Do not miss seeing this movie in theaters; it's an unforgettable experience. Oh, and one more thing: As is it certainly Shyamalan's signature style, this movie has a coup de grace that outshines even those of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. |
