Unbreakable Breaks Down (Possible Spoiler)

Rating: 4/10 (3 January 2001)

(Possible Spoiler! -- This Is Your Final Warning!)
I wanted to see Unbreakable very badly, but now I find myself wondering if, indeed, I saw the same movie that everyone else seems to be raving about. Whatever I expected from Unbreakable, I came away disappointed.
Without delving into to spoiler-ish details, I think I can say that there is a mystery -- or at least a secret -- at the heart of this film, and I saw through that secret very, very early in the film. I was amazed to find that what I had suspected so quickly turned out to be the truth -- and that nearly everyone else seems to find this revelation so surprising. So much of Unbreakable's dramatic energy seems to draw from the film's core mystery, that I couldn't even give the film a passing grade with my IMDb vote; once I'd seen to the heart of the film's mystery so early, there was little else left, story-wise.
The movie does have excellent acting from all its players. Samuel L. Jackson is flawless, as ever, while Bruce Willis seems to be making a smooth transition from Action Hero Guy to Everyday Actor Guy. Robin Wright is so good at inhabiting her character that you almost forget she's playing a role. Even the smaller roles of Willis' son and Jackson's mother are well cast and very well acted.
There is some clever cinematography (complete with a very dark yet naturalistic palette -- quite unusual, given the film's subject matter), some novel camera angles, and a number of very interesting individual scenes. Willis' first attempt at "fighting crime" (so to speak) provides a chilling sequence, well shot, and almost guaranteed to have you on the edge of your seat from the tension.
Still, all these excellent parts do not make a satisfying whole, in my opinion. There's still the problem that Unbreakable seems to rely on its core mystery too heavily -- and if you figure out that fairly obvious secret too early (as I did), then the rest of the central story is likely to seem slow and rather predictable. I kept thinking that the film's slow and careful pace meant that there was yet more to be revealed than I had guessed at -- but sadly, this was not the case.
Unbreakable is not a bad film, by any means, but you could find it a very obvious and predictable film if you happen to figure out the central mystery early on -- best to rent this one, I think, so that you don't accidentally cheat yourself out of full admission price by guessing too well, too early.