A Disappointment

Rating: 5/10 (4 July 2003)

Of the M. Night Shyamalan 'trilogy' (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs) I found Shyamalan's take on the ghost story, The Sixth Sense, and his take on alien invasion, Signs, both excellent and entertaining movies. Shyamalan selects a tried-and-true topic and approaches it from a completely new angle infusing the story with a new freshness. I'd missed his film on comic book superheroes, Unbreakable, and anticipated my rental of it with relish. I shouldn't have.
Shyamalan tries the same approach in Unbreakable, but with me it didn't ring true. I'm not sure why. He had me believing in ghosts, and that there are aliens in the cornfield, but he didn't even come close to having me believe in superheroes. Bruce Willis, a grown man, living all his life and never suspecting that he has tremendous powers? I never suspended belief and bought in to the story. I remained a skeptic throughout and by the astonishingly poor ending was ready to hit rewind.