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Now for the disappointment: "Signs." It should have been called "Sighs." I suppose a generous critic would refer to this movie as "deliberately paced," but to me, it was just too long a journey and too little payoff after setting us up for truly awesome possibilities. SPOILER ALERT: Do Not Read Further if you plan to see this movie. It IS an alien invasion movie. The aliens are, in the words of one of the children being invaded, hostile. Try this: did you feel a sense of awesome wonder & edge-of-your-seat anticipation when you saw "Close Encounters of the Third Kind?" Well, "Signs" is sorta like CE3K with claustrophobia, as the protagonist (Mel Gibson, portraying a stereotypical widower) draws his already limited worldly interactions ever closer. With only 2 exceptions, Gibson, his brother, and 2 children are the only characters we meet. As the aliens invade cities all over the earth, we are confined to Gibson's rural farmhouse, with only several fleeting glimpses on the TV screen of how the rest of humanity is faring. Finally, we are subjected to one of the worst of all possible alien-invasion cliches: the "secret" vulnerability of these extraterrestrial travelers. After supposedly traveling millions of light-years in hyper-advanced spaceships, the aliens arrive to Conquer Earth and (a) bring no weapons, (b) are stymied by pantry doors, and (c) as powerless as the Wicked Witch of the West when splashed with water. WTF?? Sorry, but "Signs" just never achieved its potential.