The film 'Signs'

[fitzbew88]

They travel in space ships from who knows how far and can't operate a door knob.

It wasn't that they couldn't...it was that they didn't know how. Doors (much less doorknobs) didn't exist on their planet.

Having a hive mentality and living on a planet without any weather influences, they never needed to develop dwellings. Or rooms. Or doors.

The interiors of their space ships had no doors at all. Since many of them had been born in space and never been on a planet, Earth was a baffling mystery for the most part.

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.

But that wasn't a paralyzing gas. That was a pheremone spray that was intended to say "I surrender" if the creature on the receiving end had the right RNA receptors. Unfortunately, it had unintended side effects on humans. Oops.

And evolution has nothing to do with it. These are surgical implants.

 

[CapnG]

As I said, it gets dumber the more you think about it...

 

[fitzbew88]

As I said, it gets dumber the more you think about it...

Heh heh, maybe.

But it seems unfair to criticize Signs simply because M. Night chose not to cater to our faulty imaginations when he "constructed" his aliens.

We are sneering at him because his aliens are not like we expect them to be. In truth, though, real aliens are almost certainly going to be startlingly different than what we expect.

I don't see why we couldn't expect real aliens to fumble with unfamiliar technology (no matter how primitive) or find themselves vulnerable to the unexpected.

After all, we are paying M. Night to surprise us.

 

[CapnG]

After all, we are paying M. Night to surprise us.

Surprise in a smart way not a stupid one. Aliens who have mastered interstellar travel but don't seem to realize the planet they're raiding is (from their physiological perspective) MADE OF ACID is a really, really, really stupid surprise.

 

[fitzbew88]

Surprise in a smart way not a stupid one. Aliens who have mastered interstellar travel but don't seem to realize the planet they're raiding is (from their physiological perspective) MADE OF ACID is a really, really, really stupid surprise.

But why should that be surprising?

There is no reason to believe they had ever encountered liquid water. We have no idea what they knew about Earth when they launched, or even an hour before they landed!

Why is a species that has "mastered interstellar travel" automatically assumed to have such broad knowledge of every planet it visits? How do we know they had any remote sensing at all? Our own interplanetary spacecraft have nothing except cameras and radar.

How do we know that this was not their first planet?

How do we know they understand their own physiology? Because it's important to us, it must be important to them? Perhaps their belief system forbids exploring such science. Since they reproduce asexually and have genetic memory, they don't really care about their own physiology.

How do we even know that it was the water that was so dangerous to them, and not something the water contained?

We know nothing about the aliens backstory...nothing about their physiology...or motives. We know nothing about them.

But we do know that they're not "like" aliens --- they're stupid and bungling because they're not doing what we expect. Everybody knows "real" aliens are all-powerful and invulnerable. We believe M. Night has botched it because his aliens are not fitting our preconceived notions.

I think our criticism of the movie in this respect is not showing a weakness in Signs, but a weakness in ourselves.

 

[Hoffmeister]

But why should that be surprising?

There is no reason to believe they had ever encountered liquid water. We have no idea what they knew about Earth when they launched, or even an hour before they landed!

Why is a species that has "mastered interstellar travel" automatically assumed to have such broad knowledge of every planet it visits? How do we know they had any remote sensing at all? Our own interplanetary spacecraft have nothing except cameras and radar.

How do we know that this was not their first planet?

How do we know they understand their own physiology? Because it's important to us, it must be important to them? Perhaps their belief system forbids exploring such science. Since they reproduce asexually and have genetic memory, they don't really care about their own physiology.

How do we even know that it was the water that was so dangerous to them, and not something the water contained?

We know nothing about the aliens backstory...nothing about their physiology...or motives. We know nothing about them.

But we do know that they're not "like" aliens --- they're stupid and bungling because they're not doing what we expect. Everybody knows "real" aliens are all-powerful and invulnerable. We believe M. Night has botched it because his aliens are not fitting our preconceived notions.

I think our criticism of the movie in this respect is not showing a weakness in Signs, but a weakness in ourselves.

Whilst I admire you're open mindedness, I have to disagree with what your saying here. No matter where you are from, it would be propper procedure to do a reccie of anywhere you are going to attack, and to learn about the enemy before-hand.
Intelligence of any from comes from learning.... from trial and error. Evolution itself is brought about by trial and error, the succesful survive... the non-succesful don't. Any race that has intelligence gained it from being able to utilise trial and error, and any race that respects trial and error would send a reccie party to see how they fare, and then base their attack upon the findings of the reccie party.
Any race that didnt have such principals would not have lasted long enough to be advanced enough to create interstellar travel.

It is the ability to test and learn that would make any alien race do simple checks on a planet before they attacked, this is a universal requirement not just something specific to humans.

Aliens may well be different to us in many ways, but they will still have evolved just like we did, and they will still learn just like we do.... therefore they wouldnt do stupied things like attacking a water based planet without easily accesible waterproof clothing.... that would be like us sending the apollo astronauts up to walk on the moon in thongs...

 

[CapnG]

Large quantities of nonesense

You have got to be joking. Not one of your counter-arguments is defencible. NOT ONE.

We know nothing about the aliens backstory...nothing about their physiology...or motives. We know nothing about them.

We know they can't cope with water, one of the most basic compounds in the universe and the most abundant one on the surface of the earth and yet they chose to raid it. THAT MAKES NO SENSE.

If you still insist on making excuses for this movie, I have nothing to add. This has nothing to do with them being aliens and therefore outside of the range of human assumption. It has everything to do with what we know about them from what the story tells us and looking at it from THEIR perspective. It's stupid, illogically and fataly flawed from the get go and thus a terrrible "twist" because it treats the audience like morons.

 

[fitzbew88]

No matter where you are from, it would be propper procedure to do a reccie of anywhere you are going to attack, and to learn about the enemy before-hand.
...
Any race that didnt have such principals would not have lasted long enough to be advanced enough to create interstellar travel.

But...how do you know they planned to attack? For all we know, they were stunned to find intelligent life here.

How do you know they even have a military or ever conceived the notion of military tactics or strategy?

We know nothing about M. Night's imaginary aliens or real aliens.

It is the ability to test and learn that would make any alien race do simple checks on a planet before they attacked, this is a universal requirement not just something specific to humans.

Do you think we should yet be espousing anything as a "universal requirement" as far as alien races are concerned? Do we really have the slightest idea?

Aliens may well be different to us in many ways, but they will still have evolved just like we did, and they will still learn just like we do.... therefore they wouldnt do stupied things like attacking a water based planet without easily accesible waterproof clothing.... that would be like us sending the apollo astronauts up to walk on the moon in thongs...

But what if they are different from us in every way?

Can we really say that M. Nights aliens are stupid because they didn't act like humans would have in similar circumstances?

We know a lot about ourselves, but we know nothing about aliens. Is it really fair to criticize Signs because its imaginary aliens don't behave like we expect? Are we fooling ourselves --- or worse, being arrogant?

 

[fitzbew88]

You have got to be joking. Not one of your counter-arguments is defencible. NOT ONE.

Nonsense. Every single one is defensible. They only assume our ignorance, which is indisputable.

We know they can't cope with water, one of the most basic compounds in the universe and the most abundant one on the surface of the earth and yet they chose to raid it. THAT MAKES NO SENSE.

How do you know they chose to raid Earth? Maybe orbital dynamics chose Earth for them. How do you know they couldn't cope with water? Perhaps they couldn't cope with something inside the water.

We know nothing about them....how can we say they are stupid?

If you still insist on making excuses for this movie, I have nothing to add. This has nothing to do with them being aliens and therefore outside of the range of human assumption. It has everything to do with what we know about them from what the story tells us and looking at it from THEIR perspective. It's stupid, illogically and fataly flawed from the get go and thus a terrrible "twist" because it treats the audience like morons.

It has *everything* to do with them being aliens.

We can't look at it from their perspective --- we know nothing about what they're thinking, or planning, or why they are doing anything.

The audience might be morons --- at least where real aliens are concerned.

 

[Fluoride Drinker]

This movie was dreadful and the director sucks.

 

[fitzbew88]

This movie was dreadful and the director sucks.

I agree, the movie was not very good.

But I will try to be fair in my criticism, and not let the fact that M. Night did not draw aliens that perfectly match my expectations temper my opinion.

I have no idea what aliens should or shouldn't be capable of; nor what they should be vulnerable to.

I expect surprises.

 

[Live at the Witch Trials]

At risk of being controversial I enjoyed Signs for what it was.

I thought Mel Gibson and Joaquin Pheonix put in good performances.

I dont think that the Director intended the film to be a ground breaking science fiction film.

Sometimes you have to leave your Anorak on the coathanger and suspend your disbelief.

 

[fitzbew88]

At risk of being controversial I enjoyed Signs for what it was.

I've certainly seen worse movies! It sure didn't resonate with me, but so what?

I thought Mel Gibson and Joaquin Pheonix put in good performances.

Both of these actors have shown they are capable of amazing performances. Nobody bats 1.000.

I dont think that the Director intended the film to be a ground breaking science fiction film.

Yes, good to keep in mind also that it's not a documentary!

Sometimes you have to leave your Anorak on the coathanger and suspend your disbelief.

I googled up "anorak", but I'm still puzzled by the word. Would you mind expounding a little?

 

[Live at the Witch Trials]

It might be a UK thing but when people tend to be obsessive (not that i'm accusing anybody here) over every minute detail they tend to be labeled Anoraks. This comes from what Trainspotters wear when engaging in their hobby.

 

[fitzbew88]

It might be a UK thing but when people tend to be obsessive (not that i'm accusing anybody here) over every minute detail they tend to be labeled Anoraks. This comes from what Trainspotters wear when engaging in their hobby.

Very funny.

You hit the nail right on the head, as far as I'm concerned.

If you need me, I'll be rearranging the cans in my cupboard by bar code sequence. It's my only joy.

 

[Rocketsauce]

I also didn't like the movie. The whole 'swing away' part where his mom's last words turned out to be some prophetic way for him to beat up the aliens was really dumb.

The sixth sense was a good movie IMO, but he does seem like he's some one hit wonder pop artist who is constantly trying to recapture that one hit single he had ten years ago. I think his movies at this point are good for a hung over viewing on a Sunday afternoon, but that's about it.

 

[Live at the Witch Trials]

If you need me, I'll be rearranging the cans in my cupboard by bar code sequence. It's my only joy.

I hope you dont find any 666's.

 

[David Biedny]

What bothers me is that Shmayalanana always seems to make the same basic movie, with slight modifications, each iteration always a little less coherent than the previous one. I'm tired of Hollywood supporting people like this, it just keeps everything predictable and mediocre. I'd love to see some new types of storytelling, and for my money, that was the deal with "The Man From Earth". It had it's flaws, but it was cerebral.

Yeah, I know, with the dumbing-down of the planet, I'm one of those who wants some mental stimulation. Silly me.

Thanks to all for the insightful commentary.

dB

 

[Live at the Witch Trials]

I remember when David Lynch directed Dune and how it bombed at the box office. People didn't like it because it wasn't formulaic enough. Incidentally Dune is on of my all time favorite films.

Unfortunately Hollywood gives people what they want as they are in the business of making money.

I would asses Shamaylan as an average director but then who am I ?

I definitely enjoyed Unbreakable which was very good and it is this benchmark that I judge his films.

 

[Aaron LeClair]

If you watch signs backwards, it's Josey and the Pussycats.