Well, I got the chance to see an early preview of Signs, Shymalan’s new movie starring Mel Gibson. I will start with a spoiler free review, then put a few comments with “spoiler block” around them at the end for those who are interested.
“There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who see things as signs, and those who think they just get lucky. Which kind are you?”
This is the fundamental question in Signs.
This is an excellent movie, better than Unbreakable and the Sixth Sense. I know, the Sixth Sense gets a lot of attention and I do love it, but it is mostly about the ending. Without the ending, Sixth Sense is just a really neat movie. Unbreakable breaks down(ironically) at the end, but I still liked it as well.
Signs is strong throughout. Mel Gibson give the best acting performance I’ve seen him give in his carreer. This is a very spiritual movie in nature and he pulls off the spiritual struggle of his charachter wonderfully. I genuinely felt the passion of his heartache and struggle. Joquoain Phoenix is also very good, especialy in the second half of the movie. He also gets to do the coolest thing in the movie, which you will recognize when you see it. You’ll never forget it(swing away, swing away…).
Anyway, they have advertised the movie very well. Crop circles is the early premise of this movie, but it is by no means what it is about. Even though it does deal with spiritual issues, I don’t think even the most hardcore atheist would find the movie preachy or over-done. Just go see it to know what I mean.
Okay, now for a bit of spoilers, surrounded by spoiler text to protect the majority of you who don’t want to know. I wouldn’t consider any of these things major major spoilers, but it does deal with the ending a bit, in a vague way. I’d avoid it if you want a truly spoiler free experience.
[spoiler] One thing very deserving of praise is the lack of trick ending at the end of Signs. Hopefully, no one goes home thinking, “Awww, I wanted Mel Gibson to have been a dead superhero or something like that.” Nope, it’s an alien invasion plain and simple. Hopefully, audiences aren’t too turned of by the straight-forwardness of the whole story.
I actually found myself near tears when Culkin(Mel’s son in the movie) is dying from an asthma attack. You see, the group is trapped, hiding from the aliens who are invading their home. Culkin has an attack and they do not have his medicine. This terrifies Gibson, who lost his wife(and consequently, his faith) 10 years before. When Gibson says to God, “I hate you. I hate you,” I was on the edge of emotions. Beautiful. The spiritual side of this movie was striking.
And the way God shows Gibson he is there in the end…beautiful. Beautiful. [/spoiler]
I’d be more than willing to answer any reasonable questions anyone has about the movie. My one recommendation is to go into this movie expecting nothing in particular. Just let it show you what it is.