Unbreakable (2000)

  As an origin story, this isn't a bad superhero movie.  I have issues with the writing, the pacing, and the style, but not with the fact that it is a superhero movie.

David Dunne (Bruce Willis) thought of himself as just a normal guy until he was the only survivor of a train crash.  He walked away without a single scratch, much to the relief of his family.  Then he is contacted by a mysterious man named Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) with a curious theory.  Price believes that David is his natural opposite, a man who cannot be hurt.  Price was born with a rare genetic disease that makes his bones super-brittle, so he read a lot of comic books as a child while waiting for things to mend, which is when he began developing the idea that comics are a form of oral history, only dressed up for marketing.  David initially believes Price is a crackpot, but cannot deny that there are things about himself that are strange.

I felt like the whole comic book angle was completely overplayed throughout the movie.  It's a neat idea, but not one that has to be shoved down an audience's throat.  I think if that had been more subtly handled, this would have been a smoother film.  The pacing was glacial with a subdued color palette that washed everything in blues and grays. The only person who really pops on screen is David, which makes sense from the comic book angle, but again, could have been a more subtle inference.

As a side note, what is up with Shyamalan and water?  Haven't like three of his movies revolved around it?  The Lady in the Water is the most obvious, but he's used it like Kryptonite for this movie and Signs.  There are probably others but I haven't really made a point of watching his films after that whole The Village disappointment.