The birth of a new way...

Rating: 8/10 (22 August 2001)

First and foremost, let's stop comparing M. Night's creation with the Sixth Sense. It's unfair to make comparisons especially when both movies are completely different and have nothing in common other than the fact that Bruce Willis stars in both (good for you Bruce, your agent is doing a great job in getting you excellent scripts).
MY REVIEW IS LOADED WITH SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK... I saw this movie for the first time on DVD. God bless DVD. Not only did I thouroughly enjoyed this film, but 3 of the deleted scenes were absolutely remarkable. While I agree for different reasons that these scenes should have been cut from the movie, having them on DVD is a satisfying finale.
Where to begin? 1) This was the most realistic story about a fictitious theme...the making of a superhero (LOL). In fact, this might be the first superhero movie in which 95% is devoted to his roots. I applaud M. Night for not be so hasty to go "hollywood" on this one. By that I mean that M. Night could have compressed the theme to make time for the superhero to do more of his "superhero" stuff.
2) The acting was very good. M. Night's soft spoken characters and quiet ambience, makes his stories even deeper than the way in which the screenplay is written. Sam Jackson is good from the moment he appears, but Bruce really surprised me. True, he was not reading Othello, however he did a nice job in bringing his persona to life with an excellent performance.
3) James Newton Howard's score is absolutely magnificent. Thanks to the DVD, I now own the CD soundtrack. The only gripe however, is that they drowned out Sam Jack's final lines. The music used at that point was spectacular, but so was Sam's lines. If I wanted to hear music over words, I could watch MTV for free.
4) The cinematography was slow, methodic and manipulating. It reeled you in and made you focus on angles that were not only creative from the perspective of the director, but significantly meaningful to the feel of the film.
5)The lighting was not too dark as I read other peoples' comments. Moreover, the lighting was very delicately staged. Take David Dunn's security cape, for example. It is dark when he follows "Mr. Orange" to the home that he ransacked, because it is night and it is raining. Once in the house however, the cape takes a shape of it's own. It gets bluer and looks more detailed as the movie continues. There was no mistake in their making the connection between lighting and significance.
6) A silly one...Sam Jackson's styled hairdo a-la Frederick Douglass, and purple clothing is the real deal.
The movie was not excellent, but it was rewarding, unique, and I welcome a sequel.