Unbreakable:
Shymalan's ambitious follow-up to The Sixth Sense is an unconventional take on the superhero myth. Like the two movies before it, Unbreakable explores the supernatural in a grounded, real-world context. The movie follows American everyman David Dunn (Bruce Willis) after a tragic train crash that he alone survives makes him come to terms with his near-invincibility. With the help of a mysterious man who runs a comic book gallery (Samuel L. Jackson) David learns his true potential and begins his slow evolution into a superhero.
Bruce Willis once again gives a strong performance as David. As with The Sixth Sense, the script complements Willis' natural sense of humor while still bringing out the heavier side of his character. Spencer Treat Clark is great as David's son Dean, with one particularly unforgettable scene where he tries to put his father's powers to the test in the most extreme way imaginable. He's not quite in the same ballpark as Haley Joel Osment, but then again, who is? There's some great chemistry Samel L. Jackson is the highlight of the movie as Elijah Price A.K.A. Mr. Glass. Price has all the unique mannerisms of a Jackson character combined with physical fragility and a love of comic books, resulting in what's by far one of the most distinctive roles of Jackson's career. What's especially impressive is Price's ability to be naturally intimidating despite his physical weakness, even when he's not doing anything tough or dangerous. However, his speeches about his philosophy on on heroes and villains varies between intriguing and repetitive.
The pacing, like in the Sixth Sense, is deliberately slow, but once again it only serves to build momentum for a tense and suspenseful third act. The cinematography is stellar, and the music is effective, but not to the extent as in the Sixth Sense. The final reveal at the end is a clever one, but it's nothing mind-blowing like its predecessor. Instead it's more of a confirmation of what any attentive viewer should already know about the characters. The conclusion is unfortunately abrupt and simply doesn't give the closure that viewers want or the confrontation that the last scene promises. To put it in perspective, Unbreakable was planned as the first part of a trilogy, but the sequels were never greenlit. So what viewers get instead is some text tagged on about what was supposed to happen next.
Another thing that doesn't quite work is David's weakness to water. Since David's story has almost nothing to do with water, it comes off as completely arbitrary. It was supposed to be his one tragic flaw, his Kryptonite so to speak. But what Shymalan seems to forget is that Kryptonite isn't just some shiny green rock than makes Superman weak; it's the last remnant of his homeworld. In other words, the tragic weakness only works if it has some profound relevance to the character.
Still, all gripes aside, this is a mature, realistic take on superhero mythos years before it was even close to the norm. While it's not the instant classic that The Sixth Sense is, it's still well-made and unique movie that's unfortunately overlooked when most viewers think of Shymalan.
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Signs:
Like the movies that came before it, Signs continues Shymalan's fascination with the supernatural from a mundane perspective. The story follows Graham Hess (Mel Gibson,) a former reverend who's lost the faith and settled down on a farm with his family (played by Joacqin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, and Abigail Breslin.) The story follows the family as a mysterious symbol appears in their crops, leading to speculation of an alien invasion.
Shymalan once again shows his talent for choosing child actors. Culkin and Breslin are both equal parts sympathetic and mildly intriguingly strange, never falling into predictable child archetypes. As usual, Mel Gibson is best when he's capable of making fun of himself, and while he's a very inconsistent actor, Shymalan knows how to play to his strengths. His performance is hardly a career highlight, but it's one of his better jobs in recent years. Phoenix is the heart of the movie as Graham's younger brother Merril, and the scenes that feature either him or the children are usually the most compelling. Unfortunately, Merril's background as a former baseball player seems a bit ridiculous and serves no purpose aside from tying into an even more ridiculous moment toward the end.
The pacing is yet again, you guessed it, deliberately slow, but this time it only partially pays off. Giving viewers one small piece of evidence of the alien invasion at a time is a clever move, and builds up a lot of anticipation for their eventual appearance. Sadly, while the aliens are genuinely scary as a vague presence in the movie, their actual appearance fails to live up to expectations. The aliens look kind of goofy, and of all the possible ways to make them dangerous, emitting poison gas from their fingers just isn't very threatening. And as suspenseful and creepy as the basement scene with the aliens is, everything that follows kills the momentum that was building up so well.
There's no twist, per se, to this movie, but rather a gradual coming together off all the coincidences and minor plot points into a grand plan, that supposedly shows that there are no true coincidences. This begs the obvious question: wouldn't it make more sense to prove that point through a genuine lack of coincidences instead of an absurd pileup of coincidences so intricate that it has to be part of a pattern?
I'd be very satisfied with the movie if my complaints stopped there, but the script is deeply flawed and is practically asking to be made fun of. For example, the aliens' major weakness is water, which is even more baffling than in Unbreakable, since they chose to invade a planet that's mostly water. This was probably an attempt to imitate or pay homage to H.G. wells' War of the Worlds by showing that the tiniest thing we take for granted could be devastatingly lethal in the right context, but instead it just comes off as pure ineptitude on the aliens' part. As far as tactics go, that's as stupid as trying to invade Russia in the winter, except the whole planet's Russia and it's always winter. On top of that, Earth's atmosphere is rich in water, so shouldn't they die just from exposure to the air?
Another unexplained point is how so many people know so much about these aliens prior to the invasion. I think Signs would have been much better if the aliens were just left as an unexplained presence. Still, as easy as it is to criticize, Signs does get a lot right. When it's not making the viewer cringe, there are moments of sincere humor and first-rate drama. This is the beginning of the decline for Shymalan, yet all things considered, it's not a bad movie.
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