oh so close to great

Rating: 7/10 (24 November 2000)

I thought that the 6th Sense was the best movie I had seen in a long time, so I made a point of seeing Unbreakable on opening night. While the two movies had some similarities, Unbreakable is a different type of movie from its predecessor, and perhaps suffered from my expectations being so high.
99% of the movie I would rate as being good to outstanding, however the last minute of the movie killed it for me. After revealing the surprise ending, which was almost as satisfying as that of the 6th Sense, the movie closed with two sentences shown as titles on the screen telling us what happened next.
First of all, I think this technique is more effective in comedy, such as the end of Animal House (although sometimes even these fall flat), or in movies based on a true story, Music of the Heart being a recent example.
Secondly, and more importantly, the explanation these titles gave for Unbreakable were unbelievably trite and anti-climatic compared to how strong the story for the rest of the movie was.
If Shamalayan could have come up with a better way to close the movie, I would have given it a 9 or 10 rating. As it is, I think I am being generous to give it a 7.