Review of Unbreakable (2000) by Shayan S — 04 Aug 2017

M. Night Shyamalan, a director I have had the pleasure of seeing become promising with The Sixth Sense (which is still my all time favourite from him) and the interestingly told but poorly executed Signs and The Village to just failing again and again with films like The Last Airbender and Lady in the Water (and creating or producing so bad it's good films like The Happening, Devil, and After Earth). And I think it's because of just how easy it's been to harp on him for making bad film after film I've grown to forget on what made him as iconic as a director when he first started out. However though, without at least not acknowledging or at least getting a good idea where he at least showed true talent as a filmmaker (both in writing, producing and especially directing). Which now leads into this little gem that, behind The Sixth Sense, showed the director at his strongest: Unbreakable. Considered on release not on par with M Night's first film but still liked for the most part, this film more recently has gotten a heavy cult-following with a lot of fans of both the director and also critics. And after what was a really random time, I finally got time to go and watch this and see if I could enjoy it as others seem to have. And I gotta say, after watching I I can say Unbreakable is not only my second favourite M. Night film to date but also a very clever and nice spin on a superhero origin story without any of the superhero elements you'd expect in it.

And while some elements like some timed coincidences in the plot, the twist while incredibly emotional and well done still felt really predictable despite being well executed, a scene involving David and a gun that felt really too out of character and kind of took me away from the film for a moment and Bruce Willis performance while still solid on his own felt a bit flat and a little monotone and kind of disappointed me given how fantastic he was in Sixth Sense, these are just scare negatives in what's overall a fantastic and very creative idea on the 'Superhero' idea. And this comes thanks to a great cast who do their job very well, incredibly well implemented and creative camerawork from M. Night Shyamalan that remind me why I used to love him back in the day and what made him unique, well constructed and surprisingly poignant writing that balances out tone and storytelling with delivering exposition or things about our characters through normal conversations and not through an entire scene with expository dialogue which for M. Night is incredibly refreshing to see and is something I personally admire in films, a very well layered and intriguing story that in a lot of ways reminds me of George Romero's Martin where they try to put a spin on the typical tropes of a genre with a modern day twist, James Howard Newton delivering his best on the soundtrack, and has a standout performance and character from Samuel L. Jackson that I'm so glad they took the time to develop and make him relatable.

So overall, Unbreakable is indeed the best of what M. Night could deliver and i'm really glad I got the chance to watch fully. And considering the release of Split, which I was already spoiled it's tie into this film, I'm curious to see how the director decides to follow all this up with 'Glass' but more importantly also makes me curious if Split can come back to this type of Shyamalan that many critics and audiences loved all the way back.

Score: 8.5 / 10.