A 7.1 rating is plain evil

Rating: 10/10 (9 November 2006)

This is a very good movie. People forget why and how story-tellers came into being. It was humanities first attempt to "record" history.
This movie is profound in many ways. IMDb scares me more and more as I read the comments left for all movies. The intellectual quality of the reviews is a frigthening testament to the fact that those who lack humility the most, are also those who overrate their critical-thinking skills the most.
This movie is vastly underrated. The references to the supernatural are less important than the "natural" elements. It is implied that David Dunn is created by the natural world, not the supernatural. His gifts can be explained scientifically. God did not single out David for invulnerability . . . nature did. David is a "mistake" in many of the ways that Elijah is a "mistake". Only Nature imbued David Dunn with the gifts necessary to make him the "antidote" to nature's "Elijah-type" mistakes.
This movie opens the viewer to a fantastical, but not impossible idea to philosophically explain the origins of evil and righteousness. One of the most popular phrases in culture is "good versus evil". In reality "good" has no chance against "evil". The only force that can quell evil is righteousness. How this term has been changed into an epithet in modern American society is beyond me (the attachment to all things religious is a mistake put forth by those with political agendas), and that perversion of the term is very frightening. Righteousness is the extreme/pure version of "good". Evil is the extreme/pure version of "bad". Most people have forgotten that, or never learned it in the first place.
This movie is also meant as inspiration. Reminding the viewer that those who put forth the idea that circumstance dictate outcomes fail to recognize the power of the individual to make choices for good or bad. Elijah doesn't have to choose evil. But the comics had an unintended side effect that his mother did not foresee. They convinced him that heroes are "unbreakable" while villains are easily "breakable". Elijah was intelligent, but self-pity; the inability to deal with ostracization; and immature childhood tormentors warped his intelligence and turned a "good" mind "bad". Elijah knows he's brilliant, but doesn't realize that being brilliant isn't enough. You must also build yourself a moral compass that works correctly.
David Dunn was born with a working moral compass, but like Elijah, he felt out of place. Unlike Elijah, this feeling didn't make him irrationally angry, it made him sad. David wanted to "find" a place. Elijah decided to "make" himself a place. This bit of storytelling poetry hearkens back to the idea that "good" men conform to the world. "Evil" men make the world "conform" to them. (Think of people who do nothing but scream for change and constantly complain, without offering contrition or their own concessions to the world).
This movie is excellent. The complaints I find for 2001 are found here. It's too slow. There are logical holes. Characters aren't charismatic enough. This visuals don't make sense to certain people. Some questions remain unanswered. Why attempt to turn fantastical ideas into reality? Etc.
On the contrary this film does what few films do, it entertains and enlightens at the same time. It is inspirational. It is commentary ("David, we live in mediocre times"). It is speculation. It is fantasy with the real possibility of having roots in reality. There may be no action sequences like the ones audiences have come to expect. But that is because the movie remains true to its own credo: "Being a hero isn't about stunts and self-glory, it's about helping ordinary people stay safe from self-aware evil." This movie gets a 10.