Review Of "Unbreakable"

Rating: 8/10 (3 December 2011)

"Unbreakable" is a 2000 M. Night Shyamalan film about David Dunne (Willis), an everyman, who becomes involved in a train wreck that leaves him mysteriously unscathed. With the help of a mysterious man (Jackson), Dunne soon learns that he is, in fact, an extraordinary man with superhuman attributes. Now, I know that the first mention of the name "Shyamalan" nowadays leads many people to think, ". . .ew 'The Last Airbender' ". However, there was a time when Shyamalan actually made pretty good movies. This, thankfully, is one of the only 3 he has made. "Unbreakable" is a truly compelling study of the narrative mechanics of comic books. I, being a big nerd who loves comic books, found this movie to be intensely interesting to watch because it clued me into things which I didn't know about them. Like the fact that a villains eyes are always portrayed to slightly bigger than the hero's because it shows that his view on the world is slightly more off-kilter than the hero's. And the fact that the hero's origin is often tied/interconnected with the villain's origin. These are just two of the many interesting concepts of comic book writing that are discussed throughout "Unbreakable". Now make no mistake - this movie isn't a documentary. Yes, it does discuss a lot of the methods comic book writers utilize to convey their very distinct messages, but it does this verbally and nonverbally. This movie maintains a very quiet, yet intensely brooding tone. This tone is amplified by the really somber and mesmerizing performance from Bruce Willis. The cinematography is really intelligently executed, as I found myself saying, "oh that was pretty cool/clever", to a very large amount of this film's shots. The ending could've used some work, but I'm sure with time I can learn to appreciate it. In the end, I found "Unbreakable" to be a very good film that delves deeply into some really cool subject matter.