For the next post in this months genre grandeur, I present you with a review of my favorite comic book superhero movie; Unbreakeable (2000).
“Do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world, to not know why you’re here” – Elijah Price
Number of Times Seen – At least 10 times (28 Dec 2000 in the Theater, DVD, 15 Jun 2013 and 29 Jun 2014)
Link to original review – Here
Brief Synopsis – A security guard miraculously survives a train wreck and then meets a mysterious man who claims that he survived because he has superpowers.
My Take on it – Back in 2000, m. Night Shyalaman was on a role after his immensely successful The Sixth Sense (1999) shocked the world with his ingenious storyline and plot.
As much as I love that movie, I still think it pales in comparison to his second film that came out a year later.
M. Night took the idea of showing how it would be plausible for someone living in our world to possess super powers.
This movie uses many elements of classic comic books to give this movie a comic feeling.
The characters each have central color schemes for their clothes and other possessions.
The main characters name uses alliteration like many known superhero identities. (His name is David Dunn just like Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, etc.)
Numerous camera angles fit into a frame similar to the frames in comics.
The movie itself plays out like an amazing origins story having us and the protagonist find this out together. He has a mentor teaching him about how the world of superhumans with powers works and we even meet his arch enemy.
This IMHO is m. Nights best work and he has only spiraled downhill since then.
Bottom Line – Excellent superhero origins storyline and plot that proves that M. Night Shyalaman did have some parts of genius in him, unfortunately is has long dissipated. TRuly his best IMHO. Highly recommended!
Rating – Oscar Worthy (no change from original review)
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I really loved this film too. I really do think it’s far too underrated. The scene where the guy wanting to buy a rare comic for his son but is turned away by Elijah really sets the tone for me.
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Love that scene. My favorite tho is the one in the train station when he decides to try out his powers. Tnx Alex
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Great choice Rob, its a great subversion of the superhero genre. You still accepting entries?
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How quickly can u get it to me? I planned on posting the finale later today, but I can push it til tomorrow if that helps
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Probably not mate. Don’t worry about it, i’ll take part in the next one 🙂
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Sorry 😦 next month is alien genre
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Cool! I wrote a big post about Aliens last year, would that be OK to put on your site?
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U dont wanna do something new??? 😀
Your call mikey
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Yeah OK I’ll try to be original!
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You’re one of a kind anyway mikey!
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Excellent pick here Rob!
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Tnx zoe! I plan to post your finale later tonight
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WHOOP looking forward to it!
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Great pick and write up Rob. I might have to rewatch this one of these days to see if I’ll like it more. The idea of the superhero and arch enemy being the antithesis of each other is right on point and still stands out in my limited memory. 🙂
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Yep. totally agree with you Eddie!
Appreciate the comment!
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Hope you’ll once again be joining in this month! The genre is Alien movies
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I love Unbreakable. Agreed about it going all pear-shaped for M. Night from here. 😦
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I think pear shaped is being generously nice Tom!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting Tom!
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Oh man. I still have to go with The Sixth Sense in a Shyamalan showdown. LOVE that movie. I’d have to say that’s my favorite, then SIgns, and then this. And we can just pretend the rest of his stuff doesn’t exist. Hahaha. This is a good one though–a very nice choice for the genre! 🙂
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He made other movies besides those 3????
I loved how he tried so hard to keep this in the real world
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