The film 'Signs'

[Hoffmeister]

What do people think of the film 'Signs'?

I watched it for the first time in years the other day and initially marvelled at how it depicted a realistic portayal of how Aliens might attack.

However, upon thinking about it some more.... i realised its the most ridiculous film ever!!
I mean come on, Aliens that have the technology to traverse the universe in giant spaceships attack a planet that is 90% (or some high percentage) covered in the one thing that is completely deadly to them.

They didnt even think to bring an umbrella? Also, they didnt have any weapons?? All they had to do was come down in waterproof macks and we would have been toast....

Rant over.....

 

[valiens]

I liked everything about Signs except the silly literal surface, as you mentioned. I thought what was underneath that was pretty good.

And the TV broadcast of the birthday party was better looking than all of the hoax footage combined.

 

[Hoffmeister]

Agreed, that scene was absolutely awesome and its the bit that everybody remembers. I suppose the film wouldnt have been quite the same if they had just come down and zapped everyone to dust in seconds.

Lets hope all aliens are as stupid as they are in th films

 

[skunkape]

I thought that Signs sucked ass. I'm glad I saw it in a dollar theatre. The big surprise twisteroo, that audiences expect from a Shamalamadingdong flick, is that the advanced alien race that comes to enslave humanity and conquer the planet are a bunch of fuck wits? Come on...nothing exploded, no blood and guts, no titties...An exponentially more fun film about alien invaders is 'Evil Aliens'.

 

[David Biedny]

I absolutely hated this terrible, ridiculous stinkbomb.

The effects were cheap and flimsy, the plot was as brain-damaged as it could get, and as Hoffmeister pointed out, the aliens come to a frikkin WATER PLANET and then discover that water is poisonous to them?

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Shyamalan is a one-trick hack, a shitty writer and even worse director. I mildly enjoyed the Sixth Sense, but was not even slightly surprised by the "twist" end, and the rest of his body of work is just as predictable and amateurish.

dB

 

[Hoffmeister]

I absolutely hated this terrible, ridiculous stinkbomb.

The effects were cheap and flimsy, the plot was as brain-damaged as it could get, and as Hoffmeister pointed out, the aliens come to a frikkin WATER PLANET and then discover that water is poisonous to them?

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Shyamalan is a one-trick hack, a shitty writer and even worse director. I mildly enjoyed the Sixth Sense, but was not even slightly surprised by the "twist" end, and the rest of his body of work is just as predictable and amateurish.

dB

LOL, that was a bigger rant than mine...

 

[Kieran]

Silly film . But i did like the part where the guy, was in the cupboard watching the Aliens on Tv.

 

[CapnG]

Signs is a film that gets dumber the more you think about it re: the water aspect. Everything on earth has water in it. EV-ER-Y-THING. Not just lakes and rivers, every single piece of organic matter on the planet is saturated with it. EVEN THE AIR! To say nothing of more direct sources like sweat, spit or maybe RAIN...

At least in Alien Nation it was specifically salt-water... The idea that these aliens would invade earth.... naked... is absurd as humans trying to colonize Venus in gym shorts.

And that's just the science aspect. The other half of this movie is faith, right? The idea that "everything happens for a reason". The notion of a watchful God who looks down on us with a "tough love" attitude. Hmmm... God really screwed over those aliens then, didn't he?

 

[fitzbew88]

What do people think of the film 'Signs'?
...
i realised its the most ridiculous film ever!!
... Aliens that have the technology to traverse the universe in giant spaceships attack a planet that is 90% (or some high percentage) covered in the one thing that is completely deadly to them.

They didnt even think to bring an umbrella? Also, they didnt have any weapons?? All they had to do was come down in waterproof macks and we would have been toast....

Heh heh, the movie didn't "work" for me either, from a creative standpoint.

But I don't think we would have to struggle with mainstream science to make a case that the aliens visit to earth might've constituted their first exposure to liquid water.

For all we know, this was their first planet.

I perceived the movie to be not so much about alien invasion, but about a man coping with a personal tragic loss, then a loss of faith, then being tested by the universe in an almost incomprehensible way.

But no, the movie didn't work for me overall.

 

[Graphimancer]

I like unbreakable.

6th sense was a dud to me, because I figured out the plot twist long before the reveal.

 

[DamnDirtyApe]

So which is less plausible - that Et's have no clue about liquid water, despite the fact that water is relatively abundant in the universe, or Jeff Goldblum creating a computer virus on a desktop computer than can bring down alien force fields?

 

[Gareth]

Shyamalan is a one-trick hack, a shitty writer and even worse director. I mildly enjoyed the Sixth Sense, but was not even slightly surprised by the "twist" end, and the rest of his body of work is just as predictable and amateurish.

dB

I actually liked the 6th Sense too, but what was that ridiculous piece about a wolf out in the woods? Lady? Or something.... Hes definitely lost any 'touch' he may have had. Or maybe he is just a one trick pony.

Anyone seen his latest? Where a whole city is paralysed by some invading force? Ive heard bad things.

 

[fitzbew88]

So which is less plausible - that Et's have no clue about liquid water, despite the fact that water is relatively abundant in the universe, or Jeff Goldblum creating a computer virus on a desktop computer than can bring down alien force fields?

My vote is for the latter being less plausible!

It is true that water is "abundant" in the universe...but liquid water? The jury is still out --- technically.

What if the aliens were only vulnerable to fluorinated water?

I'm just having fun here, this is just a movie.

Mel Gibson played a pastor in the movie? Perhaps he had blessed the water, and the Holy Spirit was burning the evil demonish Aliens.

 

[cottonzway]

I enjoyed Signs. It wasn't a great movie, but entertaining. I am not a huge fan of M. Night (despite him being from my hometown) but I thought it was a pretty good movie except how the aliens could be beat. That was pretty absurd.

 

[DamnDirtyApe]

My vote is for the latter being less plausible!

It is true that water is "abundant" in the universe...but liquid water? The jury is still out --- technically.

True.. but the fact that the Signs Et's were an ultra-advanced space faring race with mastery of technology means they would have to be well aware of common elements and the periodic table or else how could they create enormous starships. It would be like us being unaware that mercury is toxic. Possible, but unlikely.

But yea, I'd say the Independance Day rip-off of The War of the World's virus plot element is as absurd as it comes.

 

[fitzbew88]

True.. but the fact that the Signs Et's were an ultra-advanced space faring race with mastery of technology means they would have to be well aware of common elements and the periodic table or else how could they create enormous starships. It would be like us being unaware that mercury is toxic.

What a fascinating question. For purposes of the discussion I am speculating that the fictional alien biology/environment could possibly leave the aliens unfamiliar with the effects of liquid water on their biology. In a nutshell, they wouldn't necessarily have been exposed to liquid water before.

But could aliens become an "ultra-advanced space faring race with mastery of technology" without being familiar with liquid water?

How do we use water in our advanced technology? Off the top of my head, I would say mainly as a coolant. Is there a good substitute that doesn't involve water? Does normal antifreeze (an excelent coolant) have any dependency on water? I don't think so.

I think an alien civilization could become spacefaring without being familiar with liquid water.

If I recall correctly, the only other technology the aliens showed in the movie was cloaking, and we are not so far from that ourselves.

Possible, but unlikely.

Possible I think, I can't fairly gauge the likelihood.

But yea, I'd say the Independance Day rip-off of The War of the World's virus plot element is as absurd as it comes.

I absolutely agree.

 

[DamnDirtyApe]

What a fascinating question. For purposes of the discussion I am speculating that the fictional alien biology/environment could possibly leave the aliens unfamiliar with the effects of liquid water on their biology. In a nutshell, they wouldn't necessarily have been exposed to liquid water before.

But could aliens become an "ultra-advanced space faring race with mastery of technology" without being familiar with liquid water?

How do we use water in our advanced technology? Off the top of my head, I would say mainly as a coolant. Is there a good substitute that doesn't involve water? Does normal antifreeze (an excelent coolant) have any dependency on water? I don't think so.

I think an alien civilization could become spacefaring without being familiar with liquid water.

If I recall correctly, the only other technology the aliens showed in the movie was cloaking, and we are not so far from that ourselves.



Possible I think, I can't fairly gauge the likelihood.



I absolutely agree.

Sure it's possible to imagine scenarios of life where the universal solvent of life for them is something like ammonia or sulfer-dioxide. They would be unfamiliar with liquid water on their planet.

My point was simply that in order to understand how to create materials with advanced properties that allow for space travel, they would have some understanding of the elements. We never encounter many elements directly, but we are at least aware of them and their molecular weights and properties. I can't imagine how one could create alloys and composites with no understanding of chemistry.

If the aliens have the ability to travel the stars, they would need some sort of way to measure and detect what is out there, so I'm guessing that when they first arrived at Earth, some sort of assesment of it would likely occur. Like.. "Hey! what is all that flowing clear liquid that covers 70 percent of the entire planet" But hey.. that's my human thought proccess, no way of knowing theirs!

 

[exo_doc]

Water being poisonous to alien life wasn't even original!
Think "Day of the Triffids" and "Alien Nation", both types can be wiped out by sea water. There's probably others too.
And they have problems with pantry doors?!?!??!? What kind of interstellar idiots are these?

However, Scary Movie 3 or 4 (?) , the parody on some of "Signs" was funny...."If I hadn't smoked that exact pound of weed." ...Har Har Har

 

[Ron Collins]

Forget the water. Look at the other stupid shit. They travel in space ships from who knows how far and can't operate a door knob. How fortuitous that they happen to emit some paralyzing gas from their wrists to help them steal humans. What evolutionary cycle would give you gas emitting wrists? This movie was shit covered shit with shit filling.

 

[Hoffmeister]

Forget the water. Look at the other stupid shit. They travel in space ships from who knows how far and can't operate a door knob.

LOL yeah i didnt even think of that...