Unbreakable
A superhero drama/thriller that should've had a greater impact than it did.
Reminder for reviews: I'm only really going to talk about what stood out to me, so anything I don't bring up is most likely just fine.
If an issue isn't bad enough to detract from the experience, then that's a good thing - just like something not standing out as being noteworthy doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing.
It's perfectly fine for a thing to serve its purpose and nothing more.
MOVIES
- Unbreakable plot summary: A man learns something extraordinary about himself after a devastating accident. (IMDb)
- To get this out of the way right at the start: I really like Unbreakable, I have done since I first saw it and re-watching it multiple times has done nothing to change my mind.
- On this latest re-watch, the thing that stood out to me most was the realisation of how little impact the movie had, and I mean that in a specific way.
- A divergence: the Marvel Cinematic Universe, thanks it's general critical and commercial success is seen as the top dog, but is also viewed as quite homogenous.
- Despite that belief, name another comicbook or superhero-based property that is different in tone and style to the MCU, but doesn't fit the narrow band of containing gore, swearing, sexual content or fourth-wall breaking/meta-commentary.
- (and even the MCU has got in on a lot of that now thanks to Deadpool & Wolverine...)
- There's what? The Batman and...? There might well be others, but did they get anywhere near the positive critical and audience reactions the MCU has generally received?
- Where are the superhero horror films? (Ludicrously, the MCU is arguably the closest 'big name' to doing that with the Werewolf By Night special on Disney+.)
- Where are the superhero comedies? Joker: Folie à Deux tried the musical route, but didn't really succeed.
- What about a superhero romance? I've been waiting for an adaptation of Ultra: Seven Days for a while.
- Then there's Unbreakable, which is a really damn good drama/thriller that could and should have easily influenced others into branching out how you can tell a superhero story.
- The film has a very muted and subdued style and tone, but that really helps to ground a story about a man (Bruce Willis as David Dunn) who slowly comes to realise that he has superhuman abilities.
- Despite the 106-minute runtime making it shorter than most superhero movies these days, it's in no rush to get through the story it has to tell, instead really taking its time to take the subject matter seriously.
- In other words, if you're looking for a superhero movie similar to what's being made today, then this really isn't going to be the film for you.
- On the other hand, if you want a character-driven story involving a superpowered person and how the discovery of their abilities changes their life and their relationships to the people around them, then you just might love it instead.
- While I do like the MCU and have been a Marvel fan since I was a kid, I also love variety in how these kinds of stories can be told and that's a big part of the reason why I like Unbreakable so much.
- Bruce Willis is fantastic as Dunn; I really like Robin Wright as his hurting wife, Audrey; Spencer Treat Clark is great as his son, Joseph; and Samuel L. Jackson is reliably excellent as the twisted Elijah Price, aka Mr Glass.
- Again, I love how different Unbreakable feels to other superhero movies and really wish these types of movies could be allowed to push into other genres to add some real diversity to audience viewing options.
- Unbreakable is a really, really good superhero drama/thriller that stands out even more today as something special than it did when originally released and is a movie I definitely recommend watching. [9/10]
GAMES
- 1000xRESIST has been completed and will be written about next week.
- Mass Effect 2's main story still stands out as oddly-paced to me; I'm about 70% of the way through, but have about two-thirds of the game left to play.
- Baldur's Gate 3 continues to surprise with my latest playthrough and literally having new experience after new experience after new experience on what is my fourth playthrough.
TV
- Star Wars: The Acolyte has been started and will hopefully be written about in January.
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