Nice idea, where's the movie? SPOILERS

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2001)

I don't understand the effusive praise for this tepid picture. So you've got a guy who has never been hurt, never been sick, has extrahuman strength (certainly not superhuman -- Vasili Alexiov still has this guy beat). He has a spotty prescience about bad guys, though we saw it misfire once. It's a very promising ground situation. But so little is done with it.
Willis seems to think he's still in the Sixth Sense. (heck, all of them do). But that slow pace which served to build suspense so effectively there is totally misplaced in "Unbreakable". It's not the slow pace of deliberation, but of listlessness. And what a reluctant hero! Over half the movie is gone before Bruce even entertains the possibility that he has powers; it's nearly at the end when he follows his nose, with no preparation or forethought, to interdict a crime in progress. That's all???
The weight-lifting scene was fun, and I'm sorry I missed the DVD follow-up where he benches 500 lbs in the stadium. Again, nothing was done with this newfound ability.
I was glad of the scene with the kid and the gun, if only because it jarred a smidgen of emotion from Bruce. But it came out of nowhere. I think the motivation was supposed to be that the kid really needed his dad to be a superhero, but the groundwork for that was not laid convincingly.
The ending was a nifty twist, but by then I'd lost interest. If the director isn't excited about his concept, why should I be?