Signs - A bunch of new agey bullcrap!

When this movie ended I stood up in the aisle and yelled, Brought to you by the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints! and then I walked out.

It is nice to see some Presbyterian propaganda instead of all the military propaganda we've been getting fed. I do have to say that for it!

Here's my other little issue with this flick: What up! That was the most inept alien invasion that I've seen since Plan 9 From Outer Space! It's obvious these water-whipped extra-wimpy-terrestrials checked the forecast on the Weather Channel. That's why they floated their UFO's over some guy's hacienda in Mexico and went for Iran and other arid lands. Sure. I get that. But these dudes were just a few thousand raincoats away from world domination, weren't they? If only they'd thought of that. Duh.

Hopefully the DVD release will contain an extended broadcast from the end of the film: The folks in Iran have figured out how to beat the aliens. They're armed with Super-Soakers and water balloons! Hooo-wheee! Watch those suckers run!

I bet the next time they show up they bring road maps instead of crop circles and they actually consider being armed with some of their technologically superior weapons rather than engaging everyone in hand-to-hand combat. Wait! Sequel!

BAD Signs! Starring Chuck Norris, Jet Li, Steven Seagal and Vin Diesel.

The aliens come back and America's best engages THEM in hand-to-hand combat! Woooooh!!

Theme song: Tesla's cover of that hippy song Signs. M. Night might even hop back on the project if he gets to have some hippy-drippy message-song in the flick.

-Ms.

Um, actually, the Church of Latter Day Saints are the Mormons--very different from Presbyterians. So, if you did shout that line at the screen (which I doubt), you prolly made a fool of yourself. [:)]

This movie wasn't really about an alien invasion. That's why we don't see much of the aliens until the very end. You see, the alien invasion was meant as a test of faith. Most of our fears are unseen, and the aliens represented our fears. By overcoming our fears and by submitting to our faith (in whatever it is that we choose to believe), we can transcend our mortal selves--that's what the movie is saying.

By the way, water didn't defeat the aliens--it was faith. If you listen carefully to the film's dialogue, you'll realize that Father Hess's daughter is an angel. She touched the contaminated (i.e. regular) water and made it into holy water. That's why she kept on asking for more and more water--so that she could bless more glasses of water and place them around the house. She was protecting the whole family.

Although I'm an atheist (yes, not even agnostic), I took to the film pretty well. It's my favorite M. Night Shyamalan movie yet.

...She touched the contaminated (i.e. regular) water and made it into holy water... Um, ok so I suppose she made ALL the water used throughout the REST OF THE WORLD holy, yes that makes sense :P No, the water acted as a strong acid to the aliens, thats all. This was just a lame invasion that we could easily handle... I loved the perspective of the movie cause it could've been much bigger (and a lot worse) had it been through the eyes of the military.

No, she did not touch water everywhere in the world. There are sources for holy water everywhere--priests, monks, assorted holy men/women, etc...

Yes, yes. I know M. Night is a Presbyterian and that the preacher-man was one... but the über-preachiness of this flick made me connect it with Davie & Goliath. It too ended suddenly with a blast of horrific music and a big Brought to you by...the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints.

Some people require sci-fi flicks to feed their sense of spirituality, I suppose. I find it trite. E.T. was cute and despite a Messiah-esque neck-stretcher didn't contain such heavy-handed bullcrap as M. Night's new-agey flicks. He's like the reverse L. Ron Hubbard. I suppose he'll pen the equivalent of a Battlefield Earth in the psuedo-religious book section.

Another soundtrack pick for his big sequel would be George Michael's song Faith. That would be about as subtle as the M. Night (the M stands for MESSAGE it turns out!) silver-screen faith hammer we got slammed with in Signs.

His message is over-wrought and flawed anyway. Everyone gets faith in the trenches. But true faith isn't something we get only once we're pinned to the wall.

Am I alone in thinking that M. Night's deeeep meeeessaaaages get in the way of his creating entertaining movies?

-Ms.

damn you guys see too much into movies...

I think, Poster5 is right! The little girl was blessing the water is some mysterious way. The strange thing is you never really know if it is water that kills the aliens. Watch the film again and see for yourself. In the end the television announces that people in the middle east have found an old ritual that has defeted the aliens -- They never tell you what it is!? In the end, many of us assume it's water that kills the aliens, but if you watch carefully you'll see that question is never answered.

It's funny how many people saw this film as an alien invasion movie when it was far from it. Many film goers obviously wanted more cheap thrills, big explosions, and typical sci-fi lazerbeam crap. Instead it focused on a main character, his family, and issues of faith. Certainly a little deeper then some cheap thrills, you know, a movie that makes you think!? Even in the previews there is not a word mentioned about aliens. People tend to equate crop circles with aliens only by assumption. It's still a what if and maybe question that , even today, lacks any proof. The crop circles could have been dealt with on many levels, and in some way I wish M. Night would have done just that. It may have helped to keep the focus off the alien topic which so many people think that's what the movie was only about!

They do not say anything about an old ritual, just that they found a way to beat them. I have seen the movie two time (both in digital cinema in Metreon, SF) and I think this is absolutely the best movie of the year. Allthough I agree that the whole invasion story is pretty weak(they have cloaking space ships, but can't get through a wooden door?), I still loved it.
I think M. Night is one of the greatest story tellers in cinema today.

About the blessed water thing, I don't buy that theory. Some people just seems to over-analyze films.

I disagree with the assertion that the little girl was an angel AND the idea that it took holy water to kill the very inept and lame aliens in Signs...

The movie was, however, a test of faith. The combination of the young girl's penchant for leaving glasses of water around the house and Joaquin Phoenix's unusually hard swing plus a variety of other circumstances (like his young son's asthma) all came together to save the good preacher's family.

I think the idea of his young girl being an angel and blessing the water is far-fetched simply because of the minor plot point where it is mentioned that the aliens were avoiding all bodies of water....which means a fear of water in general...

That is unless, of course, some holy folk by the beaches of the Earth blessed all the contiguous bodies of water in the world...which, I suppose is very possible :P

One more point...preacher or not, I found it pretty ridiculous that a rural family in an agricultural part of the US didn't at least have an old rusty shotgun in their entire property to protect themselves.

Dude, some people don't believe in guns. (y)