M. Night Shyamalan's Signs

The only Indian American director, (which is cool because I'm Indian American) ONE OF US, ONE OF US! Sorry. Anyhow finally FINALLY a person of minority is accepted into the mainstream field of science fiction/suspense films, and people say his films suck, Unbreakable, Sixth Sense, and now Signs. What the hell gives? Why do people make bogus claims like he drags his movies out or nothing happens or something? Makes me wonder what kind of stuff they prefer, I'm guessing stuff that doesn't require a lot of thinking, maybe action sequences up the wazoo. I don't buy that he's boring, Senior Speilburgo had or shall I say still has a habit of particulary dragging his movies to the point of predictiblity and unfulfiling payoff which by the way the audience usually never sees, as they pass out due to extreme boredom beforehand. (see Minority Report, and A.I) Actually don't see them, you'll be...very very sorry if you do.

Another Independence Day??? Wow that's not something I'd be particulary proud to strive for.

 

I couldn't care less about this Shyamalans guy's race. Other than "The 6th Sense" which is good, but waaaay overrated, the other two movies I've seen of his have been lousy and boring. Trying to throw that "twist" ending in to every movie to save us from boredom doesn't work for me.

I do agree with you about Speliberg though. Minority Report was terrible and terribly overrated. Predictable beyond belief (hmmmm, I wonder if MAX VON SYDOW is behind it all...he's only played the villian in EVERY movie I've ever seen him in.) Slapstick/dumb attempts at humor in a dysopian future nightmare flick? (i.e. The couple fighting stops for the spider. Lame. The spoiled milk and sandwich in the fridge. Real high-brown stuff.) An endless slew of product-placements. A completely unengaging main character...a drug-addicted, cop who has no problem violating other's "rights", but when it happens to him...it's soooooo wrong. Hypocrite. Terrible terrible slap happy ending. And not in the least thought provoking. THE most overrated movie of this year.

 

IMHO The sad thing about Minority Report is the pre-crime idea was awesome, but after watching it I can't honestly say it was a great movie. Good, but not great. Yeah last half hour "the boss is behind it!" killed it for me basically. I hated the slapstick, hated it, it's soo out of place. I like to believe the whole Mercedes bit was a statement on materialism and how it will become even more overwelming future, even though it was probably actually nothing more than an extremely well constructed original action sequence built for shameless product placement. Damn you Speilburg. Damn you.

 

Ya know, that could be considered flaming Glockenspiel.


I didn't like Signs because it wasn't a good movie . . . I don't really give a damn about race.

 

Now, now children. Play nice.

 

The thing you have to understand is that the Indian community in America is pretty tightly knit. When one of us becomes a great role model in the public eye, it's something we all take some measure of pride in. Many Indian families are extended, and even family friends are often referred to as auntie and uncle... a testament to the closeness of the community, and how many friends and relatives raise the community's children. Quite a different experience from the western ideology of the "nuclear family".

It's no surprise that I and other Indians are proud to see one of our own make it in American cinema... So rarely do you see us on screen or behind the camera. I think it's also great that he appears in every one of his films.

For me, like I said before, the relation gets closer to home because I, too, am Indian-born and but raised in America since my youth... very similar upbringing to Night's. So his story is an inspiration to me in many ways.

I'm not saying he's doing any of this as some big political statement about Indians... but it's nice to know he's out there inspiring others in the Indian community, as well as the world in general.

 

I just saw it today...I thought it was wonderful.

Melyanna Great post...I totally agree.

I loved the Hitchcock feel of the music...very Bernard Herrmann.

 

Hey Glockenspiel, in case you haven't noticed, the general populace (or at least the people that actually go to the movies) do prefer action sequences up the wazoo. Either that, or sex. And hey, when you put both of them together, you've got a blockbuster.

Signs was hated by so many because a) no action, b) no sex, and c) it was not what they expected. Nobody cared that Shyamalan is Indian-American. I liked the movie, and I don't care what race he is. I think he's a genius, I think he did an awesome job, and I loved the movie, but Shyamalan's race has no bearing on any of that.

So basically, if somebody doesn't like a movie made by an Indian-American, don't assume that it's because it was made by an Indian-American. The people who disliked Signs had some perfectly valid reasons for disliking it. No one in this thread said the movie sucked because of Shyamalan's race.

Likewise, don't expect anyone to like it because it was made by an Indian-American. I went into Signs ready for a great movie from a great director, regardless of his race. Let's say that an uninitiated person, never having heard about Shyamalan's upbringing or background, saw Signs and hated it. Are they racist? Come on.

Okay, end of rant. Back to Signs discussion.

 

I liked the film a lot right up until they came out of the basement and found the aliens were all gone. It then became the most anticlimatic film in cinema history. Sure there was the fight scene at the end but honestly, water?

These aliens can fly here from who knows where, make their ships invisible whenever they want but can't invent a water proof suit?

Lucky for them it didn't rain anywhere that night huh? Terrible. Just terrible.

Up until that part, I honestly enjoyed the film, good characters, great suspense, scary scenes and unusual and interesting story.

 

Good point, Uruk-hai has. When you think about it, the water aspect is pretty ridiculous.

 

Well Uruk has now spoiled the film for me
with the water angle because I haven't seen SIGNS and normally I would be upset, but actually I couldn't care less. I had planned to see it eventually but almost as a matter of duty than enjoyment. If water is the big twist, it doesn't sound like anything a five year old couldn't come up with. (LOL, didn't GREMLINS grow when exposed to water, )

My problem with this guy Shyamalan is his arrogance. I understand he didn't want to write the new Indiana Jones movie because he was afraid it would cramp his style and violate his independence. That's ok, I think Spielberg and Lucas can "probably" find someone willing to work with them, and they did, an excellent filmmaker named Frank Darabont. OK, Shyamalan doesn't want to work for other people, ok, but the attitude I've seen projected both from interviews and second hand reports is that he's grown so full of himself since the Sixth Sense that it's enough to make you throw up. That has NOTHING to do with his race. He's made one great film, a dud, and another that did good box office but lost steam quickly. Until he has consistently proven he can make big box office successes accompanied by critical acclaim, he's NOT the next Spielberg in my book.

 

It's not really as big a twist as you think, and it was mentioned before I did so don't blame me!

 

I agree with Super_Jock_Nation on this one. In the 3 films of his that I've seen, he's been inconsistant and not totally entertaining IMO. He need to throw a "twist" at the end of every movie is weak and a sad attempt to salvage a dry flick IMO. He's certainly not a BAD director, just not a very good one either.

Water...come on dude!

 

Doesn't he write and direct all his films? I think as a director he is quite good, I like the way he handled Signs and Sixth Sense, but the stories try too hard IMO. I must have been one of the few people who didn't really like Sixth Sense. A huge twist at the end doesn't make a great film, I was expecting something more when it was hyped so much.

I'd like to see him direct someone elses story.

 

I liked 6th Sense, but didn't think it was a "masterpiece" as other's seemed to have hyped it up as. Unbreakable and Signs just stunk IMO. Hardly "the next Speilburg"...unless he's the 1941, Always, and The Goonies...Speilberg!

 

Uruk-hai,

I'd like to see him direct someone's elses story too, but I think it's unlikely we'll get our wish. He's too egotistical to do that. I don't see him as that open-minded.

Everything he's done so far is just him writing and directing. Not that that's inherently bad...but he doesn't seem receptive to working and playing well with others,

I think it would benefit him to occasionally do something with a different origin than his own imagination. Sure didn't hurt Stanley Kubrick,

 

Well, this is the only MNS film I've seen, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I agree that several people here seem to have missed the point of the film, and their comments seem to be caused by the fact that they went into the cinema expecting a completely different SORT of film.

I too love suspense films. The scariest film I've ever seen was the original "House on Haunted Hill", which was entirely built around suspense.

Watching Mel looking through the cornfields at night and just seeing a leg disappearing was brilliant, as was the kids' party video.

As for the water aspect, I found it highly believable. Let's compare it with the Alien films. Their blood caused the same reaction to humans as the water did to the aliens in Signs. Just because water is abundant on THIS planet, why should it be on others? Their planet might have an abundance of Hydrochloric Acid, so if we invaded there, we'd be in just as much trouble

 

Yeah, but if we were to invade, we would have HCl proof suits wouldn't we?

Earth is 70% covered in water. It rains on the rest.

It's unbelievable and spoiled the film for me.

 

As my ingenious dad pointed out, we can't live on the moon, can we? Yet we still went there.

And the aliens weren't there for colonization; that was made pretty clear near the end of the movie. They were just there to pick up some tasty humans on their way to the nearest desert-planet. There was no reason to go to the trouble of preparations just in case it rained.

Plus, we don't know what they did before they actually started to invade. Maybe they studied our weather patterns to find out when the next sunny day was gonna crop up in Bangalore. If they created a navigation system in crops all over the world (and never put the signs near water), I expect they'd have that relatively worked out, too.

You'll notice that it never rained onscreen. Hmm...

EDIT: And another thing... As I recall, there were a ton of reported signs in the Middle East. What's in the Middle East? A whole lotta desert. Ironically, that's where they discovered the "primitive" method of fighting back, but still. More signs in the Middle East, less in America or Europe or anywhere with an abundance of precipitation... Interesting stuff.