The Setup: Former priest Graham (Mel Gibson) wakes up one morning to find massive, mysterious symbols in the cornfields of his family farm and soon finds that they're under attack from aliens. It's up to him and his younger brother, a baseball player named Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), to protect Bo's young son and daughter (the latter of whom likes to leave full glasses of water all over their house).
The Twist: With the aliens breathing down their necks, Graham recalls the last words of his wife — her death in a car accident years earlier and was the reason he lost his faith — "Tell Merrill to swing away." Merrill grabs his bat and starts swinging, which knocks one of the water glasses into the aliens. Turns out, water reacts like acid on their skin, and the family is able to drive them out.
The Verdict: For the most part, Signs is a solid movie. That being said, Shyamalan's penchant for clunky, "it's all a part of God's plan"-like themes in his movies never quite land, inducing eye roll after eye roll. The water discovery, though a surprise, also doesn't quite add up: why would these water-averse aliens choose a planet mostly covered in water?
