M. Night is 80% Water

Maggie:
I'm really excited to see M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water with Paul Giamatti. It comes out next weekend.

Ben:
I'm curious about Lady in the Water, but I don't have any high hopes for it. I thought Signs and The Village were both ridiculous. I feel like M.N.S. was a one-hit wonder with Sixth Sense.

Maggie:
I didn't really like The Village, but I like Signs, although I feel like it was a little absurd that water ended up being the way to fend off the aliens. And also, I didn't like actually seeing the alien towards the end. I think it was much scarier to see a foot here, a claw-hand there, never the whole creature. Much like it's better to want something than to get it, it's better to let your imagination create the most creepy thing possible than to have the movie show you a stereotypical-looking alien.

Also, I felt like, if the aliens were such good problem-solvers as the characters say they are, wouldn't they have realized that the planet is 80% water -- the thing that kills them?

With The Village, I was more interested in what happened after their ruse was uncovered. If the whole movie was condensed into twenty minutes or so, and then went on from there, I'd have been happier.

Ben:
I only saw Signs and The Village once each so I don't remember a lot of specific things that ruined them for me. I agree that we never should've seen the aliens in Signs. The quick glimpse on that home video was admittedly one of the creepiest/scariest movie-things I've ever seen... but as soon as they came fully into view, it was rather ridiculous, especially when that one was being all swooshy dancey around the Culkin boy. And you're definitely right in pointing out the absurdity of them coming all that way to a planet made up of water... but I didn't even think of that. I was too hung up on the fact that an alien who traveled across the galaxy in a space-ship could then get stuck in a pantry.