MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Signs (Mel Gibson)

Signs (Mel Gibson)

posted 5 years ago by jackronner (61)
34 replies | jump to latest

Just saw it again for the first time since it opened, and I'd forgotten how many outright belly laughs there were. Abigail Breslin's little girl had some of the best (not to mention the tin foil/Hershey's Kisses hats). I really enjoyed it; BUT in retrospect there were many nonsensical main plot points. First, even in the unlikely event they were ignorant of their Wicked Witch water allergy, it seems unlikely they'd invade a world without determining thru their scouts if the atmosphere, microbes and other things were dangerous. The upshot is a kid with a squirt gun coulda kicked ass. A good rain storm would wipe them out. So why invade a deathtrap? Also, these guys had no sense of survival planning. The boy didn't have his inhaler - the first thing a parent would think of. The cellar, their last resort, was not stocked with water, etc . And most of all, what rural guy in such a situation, regardless of his prior beliefs, wouldn't stock up on guns and ammo? I mean, you gotta defend your family. Even if they didn't melt when wet, these had to be the weakest, half-assed alien invaders ever. They literally couldn't fight there way out of a locked pantry, were unarmed and unarmored (and no rainsuits!), and who couldn't even take a man with a baseball bat. What would they've done against a battalion of marines (especially with super-soakers). Pretty weak stuff.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

couldnt you have put that in the "signs" section?
I know you wanted people to see it , but it would have been in the recent-shit-that-happened banner at the top of the front page for a bit ...

plus - if anyone else goes to the signs board to talk about signs they ARNT going to see it and cocnclude - no one ever posts on this site.

go paste into there too! :)
you'll probly get more replies in the long run , albeit a lot later

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 5 years ago

Probably because so few people go to the individual boards of an old movie.

😎

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

well why would they if there are no posts there because people posted in "general" , and those posts disappeared within a day because of new general ones?

#catch22?
#chickenandegg
#circularargument

[–] actionkamen (23176) 5 years ago

"You stole 5G from us!"
"But you don't even have 5G."
"That's because you stole it!"

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 5 years ago

Since nobody posts on the individual boards, they go to the general board to see if they can get an answer. Duh.

😎

[–] Knish (1721) 5 years ago

That scene at the birthday party was pretty cool.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 5 years ago

Definitely! Gave me chills.

I loved Signs until the non-ending, which was also when the aliens became lame due to the deadly water.

The religious stuff was ham fisted too.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Most never mention this but when the family comes back up to the house you can see these holes in various shapes in the wall, so obviously they had some tool to pass through wood, there is no reason they couldn't have used this whatever it was on the cellar door too.

[–] samoanjoes (56750) 5 years ago

You could argue that there was no water on their own planet to test it in advance.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 5 years ago

No species can get to the point of space travel if they still run around naked on foreign planets, oblivious to even the concept of danger.

And yes: Naked. Unprotected. Having no water is irrelevant because they should test substances found HERE to determine safety risks.

Humanity would still be in the Dark Ages if we ignored risks like that.

[–] samoanjoes (56750) 5 years ago

To be fair, humans, in this film at least, you could argue are smarter than the aliens.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I knew a guy who loved this film, like really loved it and thought it was some kind of masterpiece. I always thought it was really dumb for similar reasons that you stated.

He just thought I was too dumb to understand the genius at work. Or according to him anyway.

All of Shyamalan's film are pretty dumb though.

[–] Padeen (6459) 5 years ago

Haha this was a theme in the movie "Jeff Who Lives at Home."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaGY0DAnKok

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Yeah trying to insist that something is deeper than it really is. Classic denial.

[–] Prelude (1443) 5 years ago

This is one of those movies that I really liked a fair bit when I first saw it, but over the years the rewatches have made me think it's rather poor. I also notice those quirks in Shyamalan's directing style now, because they play out in every movie. Used to be not so noticeable, but now stand out a mile and are annoying.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Yeah. Running around naked on a planet that's basically covered in lethal acid as far as your species is concerned didn't make a whole lot of sense. That's the biggest plot issue.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Not to mention these aliens can build spacecraft that travel well beyond their own universe yet can't make it out of a cupboard.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

They should've just made them sensitive to milk or something instead. It would've worked with the country setting and been excusable.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I guess it is remotely possible that the aliens didn't know they were vulnerable to water, especially if their own planet didn't have any. I think that is really pushing it though. As you mention, wouldn't you send down scouts first and do some research?

Maybe Shyamalan was overly inspired by War of the Worlds where the alien invaders were taken out by germs, the common cold if I remember correctly?

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I think Shyamalan just has an obsession with water for some reason. That was also David's weakness in Unbreakable.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

[deleted]

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

A lady and cereal packages.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 5 years ago

And he did Airbender, which has waterbending and "the elements" which I think Shyamalan still romanticizes even though its tricky to use that old cliche well anymore. The "elements" water fire etc are archaic ideas and thats shown by being used for fantasy cartoon bending powers instead of ever turning up in serious movies (other than a story taking place in the middle ages, for an example)