Unbreakable

My first Shyamalan movie how about that?

Strange that this is the one above all others that I decided to review first but hey, with Glass right around the corner it was time. And I'm going to be honest out of all the films this guy has directed, Unbreakable is the one I hear the least about. I'm not entirely sure why though, it's a good movie, it came right off the heels of The Sixth Sense so Shyamalan was still a golden boy, and he took an interesting turn on a superhero-esque movie never seen before. So Bruce Willis stars as David Dunn a security officer who goes through a horrific train accident that kills every single passenger yet he comes through without even a scratch on him. Now that's an interesting movie all on it's own, it presents a good mystery that slowly makes more sense as the movie progresses. He soon comes in contact with a comic book aficianado named Elijah Price played excellently by Sam Jackson, and I gotta say this really is one of his best performances! Jackson really is, to me, the reason why the movie works so well. His passion for comic books I think dives well past an obsession, and his actions and more important his conversations with David are endlessly fascinating in the context of the movie. I think it's needless to say what the twist is regarding recent events but I would be lying if the reveal wasn't spectacular. There's tons to talk about in terms of comic book archetypes, character motivation, and the formation of a basis for future films which is actually what this movie is, a foundation for things to come. We will be talking about what comes next, but I wanted to talk more about smaller details I noticed that made the movie really good in my eyes. I like how the movie was shot, there are tons of shots where you see characters move and talk strictly through a small reflection somewhere in frame, in fact the framing is quite good and it does seem off with not much camera movement or even really many cuts, now the odd thing is I read up on this movie a bit and there is actually a multitude of long takes and I barely even noticed because the shots don't drag or even reach Birdman levels of camera movement and blocking of characters but they stick around for a bit then cut, I simultaneously really like and dislike the poncho David wears because it looks awesome in shadow and silhouette yet he wears it because he doesn't like water and I'm sure I could make a case for this movie influencing Signs but whatever. I'm interested to see what happens next in this world, and I knew when I saw the Glass trailer I had to get to this movie. I feel the movie warrants more discussion, because it is a good movie, and something one of my reviewers I watched made a really good point, they said something along the lines of, when there's pressure on Shyamalan he stumbles and falls but when there's no pressure or expectations he does well. After seeing this movie, he started to stumble with Signs, then fell and fell and fell, and smashed into the pavement with After Earth, now it seems he's dusting himself off and getting back on track with our next movie of the week, Split. See you then!