Wat didya ppl think of 'unbreakable'?

well,it is definitely my fav movie!i thought it was a masterpiece!but most of my friends hated it.so im guessin most of u wouldve hated it too.but,in any case,i jus wanted ur take on it!but my word on it??--->masterpiece!

__________________
--blinding--edge-> are you unbreakable?

I think it's Shamalan's worst movie by far. What does that mean? That it's only really good, not masterful.

__________________
"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

Nah. It beats the pants off of Wide Awake.

And, kill me for saying this if you must, but I found it far more entertaining than The Sixth Sense. I'm undecided as to which is a more masterfully made film, but I definitely prefer Unbreakable on entertainment value alone. It contains a countless number of subtle references and camera angles...it all seems so deliberate. I think Night put an awful lot of thought into this one, and it shows.

Hmm....I've never heard of Wide Awake, I had assumed he only had the three, of which, Unbreakable was the least favored. I do like it quite a bit, but I remember seeing all three of his biggies in the theater, and how they affected me.

Nope, he has directed 5 movies. The other one that hasn't been mentioned is Praying With Anger, but it's pretty hard to get ahold of.

Kong has only seen two of this man's films: Signs, and Unbreakable. Signs was absolutely awful, but Unbreakable was just marginally bad. Unbreakable does a decent job of building up suspense (not great, but okay), but ultimately the suspense leads to, what Kong felt was, a rather unsatisfying resolution. What did Kong find so unsatisfying you ask? Kong felt it was simply too hokey. It builds and builds, and then pays off with that? Hmmph!

I agree with monkey here, and would like to add that the Sixth Sense was below average too.

Okay who didn't figure out the ending of The Sixth Sense halfway through? C'mon admit it, you had to have figured it out right after the kid said, "I see dead people."

As for Unbreakable, I did not see that ending coming at all. The movie had an extremely slow pace--slower, if it's possible, than Signs. But, it was nice to sit through a sci-fi movie for once where the characters developed along with the plot, and at a believable and steady pace.

__________________
I have been formatted to fit this screen.

r66-The member who always asks WHY?

There are a lot of movies that I do see the ending earlier in the movie, but unlike a lot of people who did with this and The Others, I didn't.

You're so right about The Others Slay. I could not, for the life of me(hee-hee)figure that one out!

Wide Awake is a bit more obscure. I would've never heard of it, let alone seen it, if I hadn't become such a rabid M. Night fan. It has its moments, though it's certainly the weakest of his four "major" films.


Indeed. I've yet to see it, sadly.


Please don't tell me you're another of the "went in expecting an alien movie" types. Regardless, the film was, if nothing else, technically masterful, and a big ol' slap in the face to most mindless blockbusters. Even were it not a brilliant film (which it is), I'd have to applaud the obvious skill that went into its creation.



Besides: in keeping with the comic-book theme, it's just an origin story, and as an origin story, it's damn near perfect.

Kong didn't realize that the movie was going to be a heavy handed, obvious, and ultimately insulting message movie before hand, but that is beside the point. The movie attempts to be about faith through it's alien invasion plot, and it's alien invasion aspects are completely stupid. What really pissed Kong off was how good the movie started. Shyalaman did an expert job of building suspense and tension, and also a fantastic job of peppering the film with humor while not deflating it's edge-of-your-seat feeling. Unfortunately when the invasion gets into swing logic goes completely out the window, and by the end Shyalaman has made a message film with the subtlety of I Am Sam or John Q.

Kong's memory is admittedly spotty on alot of this film, so you very well might be right that the movie's build-up ends with the killing.

What parts of the invasion aspect did you find stupid?


I can't imagine what logic your'e referring to, but putting that aside, I hardly think you can call a film "awful" simply because there's a moral to its story. Forgive me for being so blunt, but I've little doubt your religious views (or lack thereof) have something to do with your distaste for the flick.

Then why is Breaking the Waves one of Kong's favorite films? Kong may be an athiest, but he can enjoy movies with religious themes.

To be honest, Kong gives Signs a rating of **1/2 of ****. While that means Kong didn't enjoy the film, he does recognize many positive aspects of it. What makes Kong hate the film is that it started off so well.

SPOILERS

Logic problems that Kong found distracting.

Aliens are burned by water, but they come to earth with no protection.

Aliens are burned by water but magically can survive the dew on a Pennsylvania farm, and breath the humidity (read: water) in the air without ill effects. Likewise they seem comfortable in the RAIN FOREST!!!

Aliens can jump way up in the air (12 feet or something), but cannot kick down a pantry door.

Aliens seem to have a psychic power, and yet when they know Mel Gibson has a knife they still stick their fingers under the pantry door to be chopped off.

Aliens bring no weapons.

Aliens can figure the complex mathematics of interstellar navigation, and yet they need "signs" on earth in order to get around.

Aliens can make their ships invisible, but choose to do so only after everyone has seen them.

etc.

Now, what was Kong's problem with the message? Well, it isn't the message really, it's the way it was handled. Shyalaman just needs to be more restrained in this department; Kong wanted to scream "Alright already, Kong get's it!!!" Really, he didn't need to bash us so hard with the faith thing. Another problem Kong had with it was that all the events seemed constructed around Gibson's family surviving and him getting his faith back, but what about all the people that died during the invasion? Oh well, they don't fit the theme so we won't worry about them.

Kong didn't notice this himsel, but Kong read something somewhere that compared this to From Dusk Till Dawn, and when you think about it, it's true. It's just vampires instead of aliens. Really, just watch them back to back and check out all the similarities. It's startling.

I found From Dusk till Dawn to be really good (and contrasting to Signs) because of the dramatic plot turn. Without any knowledge about the movie, the viewer watches it like a typical movie with a steady plot which shows it to be the conflict of the Gecko Brothers getting into Mexico and the situation with them and the family they take with them once they reach Mexico. The viewer expects a normal conflict with the Gecko Brother's employers, numerous shootouts and the family trying to survive. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, workers in the bar transform into vampires and the plot changes completely into trying to kill of them. This I found to be a huge difference between it and Signs because Signs just slowly builds up with clues and small events that lead up to what you expect, an alien invasion. I'm just pointing out one big difference though, I'm too lazy to look over the other parts

Back to the Topic,
I loved Unbreakable and it is one of my favorite movies and most people i know hate it. I remember hearing someone talking about M Night Shyamalan and how he is reinventing all these worn out genres such as Ghosts, Aliens and Superheros and i completely agree and feel he does a great job doing it. He is similar to Quentin Tarantino in that way. He proves himself though by adding depth, a steady but entertaining plot and strange twists or revelations. That's what I found great about Unbreakable, I love the Superhero Genre, and Shyamalan takes that and adds so much more by adding a more "realistic situation."

Ok I'm Done time to sleep.

__________________
Boards don't hit back

I myself would give Unbreakable a 4 out of 4. (Same for Sixth Sense and Signs, although I might put Signs at a level above rating, as it is one of my all time favs. Anywho...)

Some Spoilers:


The whole "Mr. Glass villian" thing had for some reason never occurred to me. This movie is really great. I dare say awesome. I was entertained all throughout, and the movie was a unique experience.


No more Spoilers:


M. Night Shyamalan is a great director. His movies (I tend to leave his first two movies, praying with anger and wide awake, out of this, although they are good films, they in no way compare the The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, and I feel his resume looks better with just those three, but thats just me....I really rambled off there....) are great films, some of the best of the past decade.

I'd rate his film Signs as his best. It is one of my all time favorites. The only movie that I've seen three times in the theater. I love that movie. After that is the Sixth Sense, and a very very close Unbreakable.

__________________
"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" - Howard Beale

I insinuated that it had something to do with it; not everything to do with it. Could be wrong, but it seems plausible. If it made a point you agreed with lacking tact, I imagine you'd have some more tolerance for it.


2 and a half out of 4 means you didn't like it? That's "awful"? You're monkeying around with the rating system.


Why didn't the Predator just blow up Ah-nuld with his spaceship? Because he came to hunt. Why didn't we just carpet-bomb Iraq? Because we have specific objectives there which call for precision. It's no stretch whatsoever to suggest that maybe these aliens had similar circumstances to contend with.

Throw in the fact that the Klingons would probably invade the same way, and you've got yourself not only a potential explanation, but cinematic alien precedent.


There's an awful lot of difference between humidity and a glass of water. There are a number of chemicals which you and I could afford to come into contact with without any real harm, but which would cause us great pain were we exposed to them in more plentiful amounts.


1 - One does not necessarily imply the other.

2 - It wasn't just a door. There were a number of pieces of furniture blocking it.

3 - This isn't Ikea balsa wood. This is a farmhouse door.

4 - It DID get out eventually. It just didn't get out right that moment.


I didn't pick up much of a pyschic vibe from the aliens. Morgan thought they could read minds, but I don't think that theory was ever validated.


Who says they "need" it? Last I checked the metric system was more efficient, technically, than the system we Americans use, but we still use it. Just because we're talking about space-travelling aliens, it doesn't mean we should assume they've Vulcanized themselves by embracing raw logic and dismantling any and all tradition. I find this a common misconception in discussions about movie aliens.


I recall the ships in the sky, but not what you're saying.

My basic feeling is this: the movie is about the family. Not the aliens. As I said to a friend once, if Signs is about aliens, then The Lord of the Rings is about jewelry. The movie aims to make us the fifth member of the Hess family. So imagine you're a Hess; would you know just why the aliens did this instead of that? Probably not. We are put in the position of knowing no more or less than that family does.

As for the message of faith: maybe not subtle, but still valid. I found it a welcome change of pace...most well-made movies refrain from taking any stance. They think themselves superior for "letting the audience decide." Signs is an island of clarity in a sea of ambiguous endings.

Kong understands your rationale, and realizes there is probably no way Kong could convince you that the message wasn't the problem. Kong didn't care for Natural Born Killers because of the shoddy handling of it's message, and that was a message Kong believed was quite valid and important.

Kong is simply trying to be fair to the film. It certainly has it's strong points, which makes it's weak one's all the lamentable.

The predator didn't blow up Arnold because there would have been no movie otherwise. America didn't carpet bomb Iraq because we've (hopefully) moved on from immoral bombing campaigns the likes of Dresden. Of course there are a few hundred other reasons that Kong knows you know. These reasons do not seem to apply to Signs.

Klingon's would invade naked, defenseless, and unarmed? Kong is not a Star Trek fan, but took the Klingons to be a bit smarter than that. Using idiotic precendents strikes Kong as being....well...idiotic.

Why did they go to the rain forest again? What about the dew on the crops? The water thing simply made no sense, and Kong found it to be too much of a deus ex machina but maybe that was point.


Jumping twice one's height implies strong legs, and Kong assumes that an intelligent being would at least attempt to kick the door. Nothing was blocking the door.



Everything else in the book seemed to be right... Plus how did the alien know where Mel lived?

It's a stretch, but not completely unplausible.



The ships arrive clearly visible, then they turn invisible. It was on the news.

The aliens play a crucial role, and in Kong's opinion they were laughably dumb. It would take intelligence to travel those distances. It would take research to know they could breath our air. It would take time to make the signs. Why didn't they have any protection? No weapons? There is no good reason. It's stupid. It was just a contrivance to make a message.

Natural Born Killers' message was valid as well, but Stone messed it up even worse than Shyalaman did with Signs. Don't confuse ambiguous endings for ambiguous themes. Most films seem to have rather clear themes, they just don't smack you upide the head with them like you're too dumb to understand otherwise.

I really enjoyed Unbreakable. I watch it pretty often.

__________________
Jim Lewis
To BE or Not to BE, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barium Enema
Crouching Tiger, Paint Your Wagon - Forums

i thought it was a great movie
not something i'd watch often...but still a good, well put together, movie with a great story line

__________________
The wold is full of kings and queens
Who blind our eyes and steal our dreams
it's heaven and hell

Sorry, i am a little TARDY!!, but i love this guys movies, and i couldn't agree with you more YODA. I like the Sixth Sense, but i kinda got bored, but then again, i get bored easily

__________________
Seek me, for comfort, call me, for Solace, I'll be waiting, for the end of my broken heart..

Plus a lady fan of PimpDaShizzle V2.0 and Most importantly JRS