Never bought it

Rating: 4/10 (22 October 2001)

SPOILERS
I saw this movie twice, about 10 months apart. The filmmaking is what you'd expect - similar to Sixth Sense. There is, of course, a 'secret' that is revealed towards the end. The first time I saw it I was completely engrossed until the 'secret' was revealed. I simply could not buy into the premise that comic books are modern cave paintings, meant to pass down legends of real people doing real things. Movies are all about suspension of disbelief. However, this movie presents itself as a 'reality' movie, there is nothing to indicate that the world is not the one we actually live in. Then near the end we are supposed to buy that Bruce Willis is a super-hero and Sam Jackson a super villain. It just struck me as lame. There was no overriding message or theme or whatever. In the Sixth Sense there was a definite message about death and redemption. Furthermore, it was possible to buy 'I see dead people' because it was revealed early (in the previews even). So the suspension of disbelief was easy. In Unbreakable I spent the whole movie thinking about what grand message was forthcoming - were Willis and Jackson two sides of the human condition frail and strong, or exploring the feelings associated with being the only survivor of a tragedy, or something, anything. I was looking for something that never appeared, perhaps I expected too much after Sixth Sense. In the end, it was just a movie about comic book heroes in the modern world, but you don't know that until you've invested in it, and it never delivers. The second time I watched it, knowing the comic scenario I found it completely boring, slow, and not clever. The DVD has no extra stuff worth watching, but M. Night presents the stuff with a smugness that gets irritating after such a let-down of a movie.