My Movie Review on Signs (2002) · 2:21pm Oct 21st, 2020
Yo, what's up, peoples?
This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, for the 7th installment of my "Spook Spectacular" series, I'm gonna give you guys my take of "Signs".
Here's the rundown of it:
Graham Hess is a former Episcopal priest and widowed father of two children, Morgan and Bo. He lives on a farm with his younger brother, Merrill, who is a former baseball player.
However, the family has begun noticing some awfully strange crop circles in their cornfield, and the pictures appear to represent something far from worldly. After noticing numerous reports of crop circles in cornfields around the world, the Hess family realizes that their cornfield was marked to be a mapping point created by aliens.
What could the aliens want that would prompt them to come to Earth? Are they hostile? Or friendly?
What's more, will the Hess family make it through these frightening times?
I'm not gonna lie, I've been wanting to do an analysis of this movie for as long as I can remember. It's a film that I've fondly grown up with, and it's quite literally one of the best thrillers I've ever watched.
For instance, the direction and story by M. Night Shyamalan were amazing!
When it came to making an all-out thriller, Shyamalan hardly mess around. He did a brilliant job at making the film vastly unpredictable, suspenseful, and surprising at every turn. In addition to that, there were snippets of genuine wit that caught me when I least expected it and made me laugh, which I can tell was done to help lessen the tension a bit and the give the tone a balance. The film wasn't without heart and emotion either, which particularly came in the form of the bond between the Hess family. The flashback sequences were neatly executed, if I may add.
The film had significant themes too, the ones about faith and family catching my attention the most. Every step of the way, I took note of Graham's crisis regarding faith, the circumstances of what made him stop worshipping God and being a priest, and what sort of guy he became after his wife's death. To me, the film gave an accurate depiction of when a Christian is unexpectedly put into trying times, which would cause their faith to be tested and make them question whether they should believe in God or not. Ultimately, when Graham chose to stop believing for a time, he became a man who hardly saw much significance in life. The scene where Graham and Merrill talk about whether miracles exist and a loving Lord is real or if people are just plain lucky and there is no God was a masterful representation of the Christian vs. Atheist conflict.
I'm not sure how many people besides me think this, but the aliens that were featured in the film looked extremely realistic. Working under a budget of 72 million dollars, it was amazing how Shyamalan and the effects team was able to make it seem like there really were aliens featured in the film.
The performances of the cast, casting, characters, and character development were likewise incredible.
Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix were literally perfect for the parts of Graham and Merrill Hess. Not only do they have the right similarities to play the characters as brothers, but they portrayed their characters in a way that was emotionally human. Plus, Graham, Merrill, Morgan, and Bo all had dynamic development.
Finally, the music by James Newton Howard was bone-chillingly mesmerizing.
From the very start of this movie, I was instantly entranced by the music that Howard made for this movie. His melodies contained a sense of spookiness that was powerful enough to make a person's spine tingle, and there was even a mighty emotionality that perfectly captured the feelings of the characters, the tone of the story, and the scenes featured.
In conclusion, "Signs" is a gem of a film that's wonderful to watch, and I'm proud to have grown up with it through the years. And, while I haven't seen any of Shyamalan's other works before or after this movie, I can tell that he was quite committed and passionate towards this project.
So, I rate "Signs" five out of five stars.
I've yet to see the film to make an input for it.
In my opinion, Signs is a flawed movie, but still a masterpiece.
I'm the only person I know who did not like this movie
5383120
Why? Because your wife’s an atheist and the movie offends her?
5383147
Actually no. I saw this movie with my family when it came out and we were just classmates in High School back then.
Come to think about it: I'm not sure if she's seen it herself or knows what the film is about.
With all the crafted drama and seriously deep ponderings of Graham and Merrill, the aliens in my opinion became the least important part of a story that was advertised as being about aliens. I disliked the movie because I found it to be dishonest with its execution. I probably would have liked it a lot more if it was sold to its audience as a purely theological drama and that the aliens wern't real and just a mystery to be explored, and that their supposed motives were meant to be symbolic of God's own mysterious motives that are beyond human understanding.
I'm also easily bored when a movie goes "Hey look, aliens and their immediately hostile: because aliens!"
5383177
5383147
Actually the M. Night said the aliens were orignally demons. As for this, eh, it was kinda crap IMO. The aliens made little to no sense, the plot was meh, the characters were alright. The religious debate and whatnot was fairly well done, but eh, again one of his bad movies, another one with a rather bleh twist. I mean, atheists can have healthy debate with Christians. For me its the same as God's Not Dead. Like, I get it, but the movies are crap for being very biased and portraying being non Christian as bad. Like, I'm Christian, but I'm fine if people aren't. I don't force them. I just enjoy them for who they are
5383271
But would you let them poison your mind? To cause you to doubt in Jesus?
5383271
If you took out the aliens, the movie's core wouldn't suffer for it.
5383276
I mean, I don't mind debate. I mean, most atheists I know are live and let live. A fair few study faiths, even if they may not necesarrily belive. I mean, even still, there is evidence for a historical Jesus
5383282
Yeah, you didn't exactly need aliens
5383276
Its really strange for me to see Conservative Christians who believe that the worst thing a person can be is Athiest, when nearly twenty years ago they thought the worst thing you could be was a Muslim.
The latter is because of what a violent minority accomplished with a few stolen planes, but at no point in US history did we have Athiest terrorists kill a staggering amount of US citizens in the name of a distorted view of Atheism.
What the heck did an Athiest ever do to you that was worse than having to watch footage of two planes slam into the World Trade Center buildings, over and over and over again, durring the weeks of repeated media coverage in case someone, somehow, didn't know?
5383396
The one thing that atheists around here tried to do to me, personally, was get me to turn away from God. They claimed that they wanted to know everything I knew and learned, yet in the process...all they really wanted was to get me to think like them by making me feel conflicted about my beliefs. No matter what I tell them, they'd always come up with more questions to make me question why I should believe in Jesus even though I've always been certain of his existence and that I'm where I am. It's like they secretly don't respect a person's rights to believe what he wants to believe despite never saying it.
Does that answer your question?
5383645
That explains your experiences, yes.
But does that make it fair to judge all Atheists by the few that you know?
5383723
Admittedly, no. But, it feels like when you encounter a non-religious person or more that you haven’t had a great experience with, it would seem like that’s what all atheists are like.
5383740
I'll certainly concede to that point. That very accurately sums up the majority of my experiences with Christians that I've met.
And I'll certainly admit that old habits die hard and that whenever I meet a new one: I'm waiting to see when and for what I'm going to inevitably be judged.
I'm not faulting you for how you approach Atheism. I honestly empathize with it.
But, as it turns out: people who are social are social because they are curious and sometimes are willing to explore different ideas and perspectives. Sure they want to know why we believe things that they don't believe and some of them are confounded by what we have to say, but in all fairness:
Aren't you confused and puzzled when you meet someone new who says with confidence that they aren't a believer?
I could go on about the significance of the Moon's Phases in regard to Magic Circles and you'd probably just stare at your screen thinking "I have no idea what he's getting at".
Just like how someone could go on about how the Gospel of Luke makes more sense when you consider the Gospel of Mark and I'd be stuck.
One of my best friends, someone I met on this site, was a Baptist Minister when we first met.
I'll admit that it was a slow and cautious process of opening up, but here we are now.
*Oh yeah: the example I gave earlier is an actual conversation someone tried to have with me years ago. To this day I just can't piece it together.