Signs: Review By Velvet

M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" has the stuff in the thriller movie franchise. Starring Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix, a pair of brilliant actors in my opinion, this movie is great from beginning to end.

For those who haven't seen it or were just confused the whole way through, i'll give ya a quick run down of it.

The film opens up with the shrill screams of Gibson's daughter Bo, played by Abigail Breslin, as he rushes to her calls to the back of his Philadelphia farm home into his corn fields. He finds her then he gasps as he is discombobulated to the sight before him: a crop circle, nothing he's never seen before in his life, a rotation of circular-shape beated down corn stalks just laying dead, and perfectly bent as the possibilty of it is in awe. Later Gibson's character, Graham, is found to be a late reverand of his local town church as he is commonly known too, by his brother Merrill, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and his two children, finds out that aliens are secretly taking over parts of the earth through navigation of crops by circles and defense mechanisms of invisiblity and dislike of water. To the end, there is a fight scene between the invaded alien in their home, against Merrill as he uses his famous baseball bat to "swing away" and he kills the alien with help of water. It ends with Gibson, now realized that his place on earth is indeed to be a Father of the church and welcome any grantedness or hope that is laid before him, after he experiences the presence of actual aliens.

The Story of the movie is decent and well laid before the audience. It portrays the average American farming family experiencing the alien invasion from their home, rather than throughout the rest of the world. On that, I think Shyamalan created smart, expandable movie making. Its isolation, rather then popularity.

On part of the acting, by Gibson, Phoenix, Breslin, Culkin, and Shyamalan himself, it was good. Gibson's Graham Hess was shown as sort of the low-down, hope given up father of two childdren who must take in that there are those two options in life, whether you choose to believe that there are thing out there, actually happening and you are the victim, or there are actual miracles in life, and they are actually used for the good of it. Graham has lost his wife and mourns to her defeat in life everyday of his life and this creates this tension inside of him, which explains his giving up of hope and miracles.

Joaquin Phoenix's character is set to great standards in this thriller. he portrays the younger brother who is hopeful, but doesn't express it and slowly follows his older brother, graham, into dismay. He is always there for his nephew and neice, and he too mourns for the loss of his sister in-law.

The aliens were somewhat in horror and suspense. They are described as having a weakness to water, and it is sensaitve to the skin and they have a hidden valve under their wrists which contain a slit tube of poison gas hey carry as a weapon. Smart as Shyamaln depicts them, but they did not have enough screen time, only on the videotape on the news, the fight scene in the end in the living room, and the night hunt scene half way through. The aliens in this one are defanitly unique in their own way, as you see their skin change into the colors and shapes of the setting around them and with their contained weapon of harnessed poison gas. Their ticks and ways of talking and communicating were awesome and scary at the same time. It was especially spooky during the baby moniter scene and you could hear their ticks a few times..

All in all, the film itself was entertaining and it sends out a message of hope and baring with goodness to heart, even if your surroundings are under attack or you yourself are in danger's path and harm.

The Good: great acting, great suspense and thrills, and fantastic music by James Newton Howard, it added great tone to the film from beginning to end.

The Bad: the only thing that could use improvement on this film was more alien screen time, and explaining of how they reached earth and why they were there, in a much broader sense. Again, there was not enough shown to actually grasp these beings, rather then the superb scene at the end.

Overall, thumbs up Shyamalan. Well done, as this is my favorite film he has made.