M. Night Shyamalan's Signs Review

M. Night Shyamalan's Signs Review/Running Commentary:

And to cap off the Science Fiction Extraterrestrial Night of Awesome is the movie Signs by M. Night Shyamalan. I mean, this movie has everything. Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, aliens...yeah, this should be good. Let the running commentary of doom begin.

Running Commentary -

Gibson and Phoenix wake up to find Mel's kids outside in the crop field with the dogs barking at a crop sign that was made there the last night. COOL. I like this crop circle stuff.

The boy gives his dog water and it barks at him and growls at the two kids.

Mel and the female police officer are out in the crop field investigating the crop circle.

Some animals in the county have been acting funny and acting like they do when there's a predator around. This is getting good already.

The son killed the dog when it attacked him. Phoenix finally shows up with some more food and ties up the other dog.

Mel's daughter comes into his room and says that there's a monster outside her window and asks for a glass of water.

WHOA! THERE IS SOMETHING ON THE ROOF OUTSIDE OF HER ROOM! This is really getting good.

Gibson and Phoenix run around to chase whomever it is and catch them but they escape by jumping back onto the roof from the ground. This really freaks them out. Whoever it was then runs into the crop field to escape.

Mel's daughter has a weird water-germ phobia. Weird.

Amusing interview about the incident the night before with the same female police officer.

The same thing is on all the TV stations according to his daughter. They all walk in there and see news reports about crop circles that are appearing all over the world. Liking this movie a lot already.

"Either this is one of the most elaborate hoaxes ever created or it's for real."

They go into town to get their minds off of all this madness that is going.

"They're trying to sell sodas." "I have been watching these reports since morning. I have seen twelve soda commercials so far...TWELVE!" lol

The military recruiter guy has it all figured out about what's going on. His explanation about the military procedure called 'probing' is a pretty cool little scene.

"THIRTEEN!" *cue soda commercial on the television* lol

"Morgan, this crop stuff is about a bunch of nerds who never had a girlfriend in their lives." LMFAO, that Joaquin Phoenix speech is one of the greatest monologues ever.

They pick up a signal on the boy's baby monitor. After analyzing it they soon hear strange noises that sound like voices. Mel soon becomes the non-believer but even Joaquin doesn't want them to lose the signal. The boy figures out that the higher you go the better signal you get. He climbs on the car and holds the baby monitor up in the air so they can listen but soon the signal goes away. Good scene.

Gibson goes outside to give the dog some water and its barking at the crop field and wanting to attack. Mel grabs the flashlight and goes to investigate. This should be good.

"Isabelle, you're going to feel very silly when you find out that this is all make believe."

WHOA! There was a noise right behind him. This is getting really good.

On his way back he hears the same noise directly behind him. After dropping the flashlight it goes out. After he gets it back on, he shines the light and SEES A BLUE LEG WALKING INTO THE CROP FIELD! THAT WAS AWESOME! WHAT A GREAT MOVIE!

When Mel comes back everyone notices that he's acting weird. All he says is that they can turn on the TV.

They turn on the TV and there's alien lights appearing over Mexico City. This is so AWESOME. I miss good M. Night Shyamalan movies. This is really good stuff here.

More excellent acting when Phoenix and Gibson are talking about the whether the lights are a miracle or a sign.

Gibson wakes up the next morning and finds Phoenix in the closet with the television supposidely for the kids' protection. He then tells him about a bird flying into the spot where the ship was the day before in Mexico City and getting its head crushed. The theory about the crop circles are that they are a visual mapping system for navigation. He also rambles about what's going on and is now obssessed with it after being completely skeptical the day before lol.

Gibson takes a shower and finds the kids with Hershey Kiss shaped helmets on so the aliens can't read their minds, lol.

"This is serious."

Gibson's reaction to the book and their helmets is hilarious. It really makes this scene work. Also his son's explaining that the aliens are either peaceful or hostile is really good too.

Gibson gets a call from Shyamalan's character who hit his wife with a car and killed her six months earlier. He then tells Gibson everything that happened that night and about what happened to get it off his chest. He also tells Gibson of his plan to go near the lake since he thinks that the aliens dont like water since none of the crop circles are near water and that he locked one of them in his pantry.

THEY JUST SHOWED AN ALIEN ON THE NEWS! AWESOME! Everyone is terrified. This is really good stuff. If this happened in real life I'd mark out big time.

Gibson goes inside to investigate the pantry and checks under the door using a knife to see inside.

HOLY CRAP! THE ALIEN JUST TRIED TO CLAW HIM AND HE CHOPPED OFF TWO OF ITS FINGERS WITH THE KNIFE! THAT WAS SO COOL! I LOVE THIS MOVIE!

Gibson comes back to his house and they're all in helmets now, lol. He then asks his son what the book said would happen if they were hostile. He then tells them Shyamalan's theory about the water and he tells them what happened with the one he saw. They vote to stay in the house. His plan now is to board up every window and door in the house because they have trouble with doors.

There are lights in over 274 according to the news. Cool. The attack is on!

Real emotional dinner scene where Gibson and his son let out their frustrations before the family bonds.

Right after this they hear the alien voices again on the baby monitor and when Gibson goes to check the TV the only thing on is an off air signal.

Another cool little scene where Mel goes to look outside toward the crop field and the crickets gradually stop chirping. Creepy.

They accidentally leave the dog outside and hear her get killed by the aliens.

Another creepy scene where they're inside the house watching and listening to the aliens trying to break in. Good stuff all around.

Uh-oh. The aliens finally break in through the attic door.

They run and take refuge in the attack locking the door behind them.

Naturally Phoenix breaks the only light in the basement when he's looking for something to barricade the door with. Luckily they brought a flashlight with them.

Mel soon figures out that they're only making noises and not trying to break through the door to distract them. Mel realizes that there's a coal chute in the basement.

They find the coal chute and an alien's hand reaches through to grab his son at that exact moment. The light rolls across the floor and finally they show Phoenix blocking up the chute grate with bags of dog food.

Another emotional scene where Mel's son is having an asthma attack and he's telling him not to be afraid and to breathe with him. Great acting.

Why are there 5 different flashback scenes about his wife's death and none of them show the entire thing?

Guy on the radio says they were harvesting humans. Cool.

They finally leave the basement and after seeing if its all clear they get Mel's son to give him his medicine.

WHOA...the alien whose fingers he cut off is in the house and has captured his son! Wild. FINALLY they show the whole scene with Mel's wife dying. He then has a revelation and tells his brother to "Swing away."

Phoenix then battles the alien with a baseball bat and water burns it. There's water glasses all over the room because of Mel's daughter's water-germ phobia and he smashes them all onto the alien which kills it.

Mel's son survives and then it flashes to the next winter and Mel's regained his faith to become a priest again. Good ending minus the revelation that aliens that are severely burned by water invaded a planet that's covered in water. *rolls eyes* Illogical.

Review:

Overall I give this 4 out of 5 stars. Good story, great acting, and cool subject matter. I really liked this movie a lot. Mel Gibson does a great job throughout this. Kieran Culkin also does an excellent job playing his son. Joaquin Phoenix is great, as usual. Nothing bad at all to say about this. A little plodding at times but luckily it doesn't last too long. Like the part of the story in which everything is a sign that interconnects the characters and events in it. I'm going to recommend this movie but also say that the new Star Trek movie is still the best one I've reviewed on here so far. The only thing I really didn't like was the aliens. They looked stupid and boring. Also why in the hell would they attack a water covered planet when they are severely hurt when water touches their skin? That doesn't make any sense. Other than that good movie.