Why is Unbreakable such a good (or bad) movie? - Page 3

Dharmesh C · 02-10-2002, 01:14 PM

from my website:

UNBREAKABLE BROKE NEW GROUND?

Superman The Movie broke new ground, for the first time a superhero in spandex is visualised in a verisimilitude world. Innovative in its design and concept, Donner's Superman became the standard for the comic feature. Subsequent superhero pictures always look upto daddy.

Although Batman succeeds in continuing the verisimiltude concept, the origins of the hero are neglected for the most part.

X-Men was a pleasent return to a certain comic book standard, despite low budget and over-editing the picture, there are lot more ideas to enjoy. More money needs to be pumped into production for the sequels. The film doesn't break new ground in terms of storytelling, it sticks to the familiar comic book vision and brings back respectability to the genre.

I missed Unbreakable on its theatrical release, but I finally uncovered the picture on DVD. In my opinion, Unbreakable twists the comic book conventions into a new inovavtive style, it explores the origins of the superhero, not for 30 mins, not for 60 minutes, but 107 minutes! It's Superman The Movie's Smallville section expanded into a feature film!

The great thing about Unbreakable is that it uses the usual comic book traits, but it twists and hides them in the visual medium and storytelling. The director, who sometimes might border on pretentious, uses the panavision camera to produce a style of comic book storytelling to a new level. What makes Unbreakable so fresh the first time around is the slow building of its characters, it's not just about the hero, but his family, who we care for. The film is grounded in reality, we believe in the world of David Dunn. If we don't believe then the film doesn't work.

As I said already, Unbreakable features some of the comic book standard styles:

David Dunn's double initials (DD) echo the comic-book theme of the film. Many comic book characters have double initials, among them Reed Richards, J'Onn J'Onzz, Susan Storm, Bruce Banner, Wally West, Peter Parker and Lex Luthor. (Also, "Clark Kent" *sounds* like it has double initials.)

Real Marvel comics are shown throughout the movie. But DC comics are never seen, only imitated. The comic Elijah receives from his mother, "Active Comics," is a close facsimile of DC's "Action Comics."

Identified colour schemes, the hero is green and Elijah is purple.

Camera work simulated comic book frames in several scenes.

The hero has a weakness, Kryptonite in Superman, David Dunn has a fear of water!

Comic Books villains always have something odd about their physical appearance, Elijah has a strange hairstyle to make his head look big.

Unbreakable deserves viewing, it's the biggest step in the comic book genre since our very own Superman The Movie. No one can deny that the film has guts, that it tries to take a new direction in comic book storytelling yet still grounded in what makes a good comic book feature - the word we are looking for is verisimilitude! In years to come, Unbreakable will become an important film!

Aaron Croft · 02-10-2002, 11:43 PM

My .02

*Spoiler Warning*

One of the most BORING movies I've ever seen. You know that he is a superhero even before you watch the movie... the preview gives it away... Guy gets in a train wreck and everyone dies except he doesn't have a scratch on him. The damn film is titled UNBREAKABLE... how ridiculous IMHO..

I spent the first 90 minutes waiting for Bruce to finally come down from the heavy sedatives he was apparently taking the whole movie and figure out that he's a super hero. His kid thinks he is, no-one beleives the kid.. yada yada yada NO WAY.. I'M INVINVINCIBLE.. I CAN'T BELEIVE I NEVER NOTICED... and I'm what.. FORTY YEARS OLD!!! Then there is like ONE scene where he actual does something super-heroish.. then a fairly decent SURPRISE ending.

Another LAME thing that I found with this movie.... so the guy is freekin INVINCIBLE. WTF? AND he can sense evil/danger.... Give me a break.. where's the CHALANGE in that... Why didn't they just give him the ability to wiggle his nose and make everyone in the world happy and rich.

And his arch-enemy is what... a weakling??? SCARY!!! And WHY would the guy go out of his way to tell Brucie that he's invincible.. you think since he's his arch nemesis he'd want to keep that a secret... ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING HE'S COMPLETELY USELESS!!!

The plot is just incredibly weak to me, and the "Superheroes" were so uncreative it was just boring.

If Bruce Willis does another film where he spends over half of the time with a dumnfounded look on his face not saying anything... well... I don't know what I'd do.. but it would be DRASTIC!!

I can't wait for the "Prequel" to be released.. hopefully it's a three-hour long epic about a guy who never notices that he's FREEKING INVINCIBLE.... maybe they'll reveal which drug DD uses to give him that idiotic look on his face... and maybe they will tell me where to get some so that I can watch Unbreakable again and actually enjoy it!!!

Please excuse my over-dramatic reveiw of this film

Aaron

DonnyD · 02-11-2002, 06:48 AM

I bought and watched Sixth Sense because of the hype....
I bought and watched Unbreakable because of it touted as being a good demo (train) for my SVS......
I sold both dvds as my response ....
Sixth Sense: Way too easy to figure out...
Unbreakable: Train/sub demo at first was ok but there are much better available.

M. Night is still in the dark..... His bragging that he has developed a new genre of movies turned me off and whenever I see his name attached to a movie, I read it as "avoid".

Just my .02.....

Lou Sytsma · 02-11-2002, 08:06 AM

I'll take the flip side from Donny. I find Shyamalan one of the best and most interesting up and coming directors.

He has a directorial style that I enjoy. Also, he takes fantastical ideas and grounds in reality in a convincing way.

I'm really looking forward to Signs.

Anytime I see his name attached to a project I'll be going out of my way to take a look at it.

TheoGB · 02-12-2002, 07:52 AM

You lucky git. You obviously never saw Mortal Kombat or Repossessed.

mark_d · 02-12-2002, 10:04 AM

Watch your mouth Theo! How dare you rate the awesome action-techno-fest that is Mortal Kombat alongside Reposessed - the worst film I've paid money to see bar none.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, perhaps, but not the original.

Mark

(for good measure just in case the tone comes across confrontational in text...)

Scott_G · 02-12-2002, 11:21 AM

This move had a lot of potential. Way too slow, Bruce remindes me of Cole in 12 monkeys. I didn't like him in either one.

I think a reluctant superhereo is hard to sell in todays world. Who out there wouldn't do more with that "power".

I'm not a fan of movies that try and "wow" you at the end like Unbreakable and Sixth Sense. We need to remember that most people won't think that far ahead and figure out the endings. Those of us that do, we just watch it to see if we were right (or how right) and how they end the movie.

I bought it, watched it once. No one else in the family has asked to watch it. Guess I make my Dad see it (hey he's retired) and see what he thinks.

Not something I'd watch over and over for sure.

Rob Tomlin · 02-12-2002, 06:04 PM

Unbreakable is a superbly crafted movie!

The cinematography is incredible. Every single scene is perfectly (and creatively) framed. This is an extremely enjoyable, creative, and watchable movie.

DaveF · 02-12-2002, 08:38 PM

Quote:

I think a reluctant superhereo is hard to sell in todays world. Who out there wouldn't do more with that "power".

Looking at it from that perspective, I think Unbreakable is extremely relevant to, at least, the US. People possess an incredible amount of "power" in terms of time, skills, wealth, and other resources. But how many actually do anything with it?

Superheroes are normal people writ large. their lives are normal lives exagerrated to the (near) breaking point. David Dunn is a normal person made hyperbolic. He has the ability to change the world around him. But he doesn't want to accept it; he's afraid of change; it means sacrificing other things in his life. Which, to me, are the same challenges facing any "normal" person who wants to impact society.

Brian_J · 02-12-2002, 09:18 PM

).

Quote:

Unbreakable?? It should have been titled it Unwatchable. This movie was an absolute sacrilege to film and art. I have never in my life watched a more ridiculously moronic movie. I am still trying to figure out how the same person who wrote and directed this movie also wrote and directed such a great movie as “The Sixth Sense”. Can you say “one and done”?

This movie was obviously a lame attempt to fulfill some kind of movie contract, which was brought to the big screen on the coat tails of the success of “The Sixth Sense”. The movie should have been advertised as a comedy. I laughed so hard at its idiotic plot and horrific acting that on several occasions I literally fell out of my chair crying from laughing so hard.

In response to people who liked this movie because of its believability: common guys, Bruce Willis a Superhero? I mean if he is so “unbreakable” why the need for those obvious hair plugs? I guess his follicles got left out. How bout that hilarious Buckwheat wig that Samuel Jackson was sporting. Give me a break…I mean give me an Unbreakable…damn, the movie is still cracking me up!

I am not exaggerating when I say Unbreakable is the absolute worst movie I’ve ever watched.

Some of you people go so far over the top that I lose all respect for anything else that might come out of your mouth (or rather off your keyboard). If you dont like a movie, fine, give reasons not blather.

Brian

02-12-2002, 09:24 PM

I liked the film. The ending was a bit jarring, but actually brought up a lot of interesting questions that could be answered in a sequel...

Spoiler:

Also...

Spoiler:

I didn't find David's slow coming-to-grips with his 'unbreakable' nature to be unrealistic. Everyone's read stories about people who were thrown clear of horrific car wrecks, sustaining minor (if any) injuries. For this to happen TWICE in someone's life (the car accident and the train wreck) is extremely unlikely, but theoretically possible.

Any sole survivor of a disaster (such as the train wreck) would likely feel "survivor's guilt," and may even be depressed for quite some time afterward. So David's subdued, zombie-like demeanor in the first half of the film makes sense in that light.

David's suspicion of people carrying weapons or illegal drugs can be explained as superior intuition, or the result of superior experience in the law-enforcement field. Many people without super powers have a strangely accurate intuition about who the trouble-makers are.

And if you, all of a sudden, discovered that you had an extrasensory ability to detect evil/wrongdoing, what would you do about it? So much evil, so little time. If there's only one of you, how would you apply 'triage' to stop the worst crimes first? How would you deal with not being able to stop all the criminal a