Unbreakable Movie

(Comments moved from MoviesThatCouldHaveBeenSoMuchBetter)

When I saw the trailer I was hoping that all the "What? What's going on? Am I really unbreakable?" stuff would just be at the beginning. Then something really cool could happen, a la TheMatrix. But no, M. Night (or the writer or whoever) wasted the whole movie on it. He almost had it at the weight lifting scene, but for some reason decided to make it drag on and on and on. Sigh. That movie could have been so much better.

The entire goal of the movie was to be a genesis story, so it was hardly wasted just being a genesis story. M. Night Shyamalan (who was both writer and director) tends to make movies either about realization (Praying with Anger, Sixth Sense), or comedies (Wide Awake, Stuart Little). Unbreakable was one of his realization motif ones. In this case the realization was of something empowering (instead of something tragic, as in Sixth Sense), so it lacked some closure for typical action-oriented audiences (who expect some nifty butt-kicking once someone is empowered). Personally, I liked it just as it was... it made me wonder how I would react if I was suddenly shown that I had some unsuspected gift. -- AlexPopiel

Apparently Shyamalan isn't aware of SuspensionOfDisbelief. The signs were so obvious, and he had so many opportunities to test them out that I just couldn't suspend my disbelief that he didn't make the realization a whole lot sooner. Hence, for me, the movie was wasted. SixthSense succeeded because it cleverly hid all the signs, and there was no need for SuspensionOfDisbelief. SixthSense worked like TheUsualSuspects. Unbreakable didn't even come close in my opinion.

I didn't have any trouble with SuspensionOfDisbelief in Unbreakable. People are very often less aware of (or less ready to believe in) their own exceptional abilities, compared to the people around them. Conformist tendencies would keep someone from testing special abilities. Remember that we're talking about a character that already gave up being a high-profile football player to be with his wife. Is this really the sort of person who would pay attention to signs that he might be something special? -- more from AlexPopiel

SuspensionOfDisbelief is not about the characters, but about the audience. It's something that the audience gives to the author in return for the delight of the story. But the author has to work for it. They can't make things so unbelievably unreal that the audience is unwilling to suspend disbelief. And again, different audiences have different tastes. Fantasy and ScienceFiction audiences are willing to believe strange things as long as they fit reasonably well into the conventions of the genre. Unbreakable was a) fundamentally a comic-book genre movie, and b) a popular 'blockbuster' genre movie. You can't get away with centralizing art-film angst in a typical blockbuster movie (if it's in there, it has to be secondary and subtle), especially not one with the fundamental undercurrents of a comic-book movie. Anyway, that's just my opinion, but it explains why I was so disappointed with Unbreakable.

(SpoilerAlarm?) I knew almost nothing before watching it, but quite liked it. Even though it was very calm, I think the movie was far better by beeing not another ActionMovie?, but (SpoilerAlarm?) instead showing how a superhero recognizes what he really is. Interesting too is that I felt the whole movie would be much worse without the final scene in which David and Elijah shake hands.

I second that. For me it was the best film about a SuperHero? I have ever seen. I guess thats because Unbreakable is the SuperHero? I like best. Maybe this is so because of his personal side and his family. -- GunnarZarncke

I don't think Sixth Sense was tragic. The boy's talent in that movie was only initially troublesome. Once he learned how to use it productively, he things turned out much better for him. --EdPoor

I think Alex meant the twist at the end, not the boy's gift. Yes, I did.