good premise, stupid movie

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2001)

After making the Oscar nominated The Sixth Sense, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan was faced with the daunting task of making his next film just as original and well done as the previous. Unfortunately, Unbreakable comes nowhere close. While the concept is original the story is flat and could have been handled much better. The film involves Bruce Willis who, after being the sole survivor of a train wreck, learns that he seems to be invincible. This theory is put even further and stretched drastically when a comic collector played by Samuel L. Jackson, suggests he is some sort of comic book super hero. Seem a little dumb? It is, and it gets worse. All of a sudden Willis has super powers and super weaknesses. He decides he must use them to fight evil doers and save the day. This part of the story actually could have gone somewhere, but practically no time is spent on it and the majority of the movie is just about him learning of his apparent invincibility (something the audience knew already from the preview). Time is also spent on useless things involving his family, which have nothing to do with the overall plot and just seem to slow the movie down. It does have a twist ending that I didnt see coming, but it is not nearly as good or thought provoking as that of The Sixth Sense. Its not a completely horrible film, it has some amusing scenes and the acting is OK, but it just didnt live up to my expectations and I left the theatre feeling disappointed.