(Review originally written at 6 January 2004)
Don't you just hate it when an ending totally ruins a good movie? "Signs" unfortunately is a movie like that.
The movie starts of extremely well, with original opening credits and some nice character building. The characters are extremely well portrayed by the entire cast and very realistic and likeable. M. Night Shyamalan perfectly knows how to build up a nice atmosphere and tension in a very original way like he did before in his previous well known movies "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable". The movie stays original till the last 30 minutes, after that the movie turns into some standard Sci-Fi movie with all the cliches you can expect. A shame because "Signs" could have very well been the best movie of 2002 and the "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" of the 21st century.
But needless to say the movie is not a complete disaster, how could a movie with some many talent (cast as well as crew) involved be. It still has some genius moments that show the amazing talent of M. Night Shyamalan.
The use of sound and light makes the movie very tense and yes also really scary at times! Next to "Das Boot" easily the best movie with the use of sound. The cinematography by Tak Fujimoto is over the top at times but a good job nevertheless! And James Newton Howard finally delivers a good score for a M. Night Shyamalan movie (never felt much for "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" score).
All in all still a movie very well worth watching, with some scene's that you will never forget. It just a shame about the last 30 minutes...Let's hope we will get to see many more M. Night Shyamalan projects with endings that will do more justice to the rest of the movie.
8/10
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