Signs...unrealized potential

Films/DVD Asylum

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Rented it last night. Better than reviews gave credit it for, but its potential to be a strong spiritual film wasn't exploited.
Gratefully, no cartoonish special effects. Unremarkable cinematography and editing. Both Gibson's and Phoenix's characters had much unrealized potential; the actors' capabilities (especially Phoenix) were largely wasted. Too much odd behavior with no foundation. Too many fatal storyline mistakes; probably the only farmer in North America with no shotgun or .22; the ubiquitous lady sheriff no where to be found when things finally do get threatening; the father's unlikely choice to keep his kids on an isolated farm while a threat looms in their back yard.
There's something up with Gibson's abandoned faith, but it gets no air. Same with Phoenix failed baseball career. Too many such elements that are hard to determine if they were always in the characters, or stuck on to justify a focus group's selected climax.
Jamming the film's major thematic point into the last moments made "The Sixth Sense", but crippled "Signs". A shame, too, it could have been a sci-fi classic in the hands of a better storyteller. I hope Shayamalan learns when, and when not, to snap a Rubic's cube of way too subtle elements into place at the very last possible moment before the credits before he wastes more good story lines to get a one second "so thats it".
I felt jipped...it was like being a serve an ill-cooked lobster dinner.

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Topic - Signs...unrealized potential - DWPC 17:21:07 01/11/03 (2)

Re: Signs...unrealized potential - njjohn 20:03:24 01/14/03 (0)

Re: Signs - geoffkait 09:28:28 01/12/03 (0)

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