For me, most of M. Night Shyamalan's movies start out with a really good idea, but then seem to lose their way somewhere along the line and this movie is no different.
The acting was, overall, pretty good. You have Mel Gibson, love him or hate him, that seems to always give a good performance, but you also have some young actors, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin, kinda holding their own too. They weren't outstanding, but they weren't bad either. And it's a little scary how much Joaquin Phoenix looks like Gibsons brother.
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| Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix |
Question 1) Why would they bother to send this small group of aliens to a small farmhouse to kill 4 people when they could be used to help invade and take over a bigger city or town or military bases and send out smaller parties out afterward? and 2) If water is lethal to these aliens, then why would they invade a planet that is 70% covered by it?
What I did like was the use of sound. The sound of running on the porch outside and climbing on the roof really let your mind paint a good picture of what your eyes can't see. Of course, Signs still has the Shyamalan "twist" he's become known for but it doesn't really work for me in this movie. I have to say that overall, it's not a bad movie by any means, but it just loses steam halfway through and left me wanting for a different ending.
I agree. I really liked this movie when I first watched it. It had a lot of great elements to it like the use of sound you mentioned. Not showing the aliens up front and letting the viewer participate by imagining what these creatures looked like. Jaws and the first Alien did that as well and it adds a great tension.
ReplyDeleteI was never impressed with the ending. It was hokey to me, and your questions do raise good talking points for discussion, but most alien flicks do. Always an element, or several, which makes one scratch their head and go, "Wait! But why would they (fill in the blank)?"
Entertaining? Yes, but once you give it a good thought over, the story has so many holes, it's not a very sound or solid movie. Just my two cents.
VJ
The aliens looked much better in my imagination than they did when we finally saw them. They were big, grey, humanoid looking blobs. You can tell that M. Night didn't have much experience with CG and special effects.
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