Misleading Trailers and Misleading Marketing

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2020)

This review contains spoilers.
Unbreakable is directed by M. Night Shyamalan and stars Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. Unbreakable follows David Dunn, played by Bruce Willis, who discovers something about himself after a disaster. Along the way, a comic book collector played by Samuel L. Jackson advises David Dunn.
Unbreakable had a poor marketing campaign. This movie had trailers that rode on M. Nigh Shyamalan's previous movie, The Sixth Sense's tone and theme. This movie is not anything like what the trailers may suggest. Unbreakable is not a psychological thriller like The Sixth Sense. Instead Unbreakable is actually a classic hero story told with a twist. The movie is actually a superhero origin story. The movie presents the hero as unaware of his own superpowers until Elijah Price advises him.
Unbreakable presents a character that the audience can follow and care about. David Dunn is a great character and Elijah Price plays an excellent foil. Bruce Willis has natural charisma in the role, and is believable in trying to discover his abilities. Samuel L. Jackson has a mysterious presence and he brings out emotions that the audience may not expect.
This movie does have some problems. Some of its directing is bland and it overuses flashbacks and subtitles. An example of this is its epilogue where the story continues in text, even when the plot had already reached an appropriate conclusion. There is sadly not a good way to tell the origin story of this movie without the flashbacks without sacrificing its own plot and character motivations.
I recommend Unbreakable. Even watching it in the 2010s, the movie does not have common patterns found in typical superhero origin stories such as the Marvel movies. This is an original movie with a great twist.
Grade: B