AL'S RANTS
"Don't Always Believe What You Hear"
For the longest time I have always believed that there are two sides to every story in life, in this case movie reviews. How many of us actually take stock in reading a review before going out to see a movie? Do you rely on the sometimes, self important, frustrated critics that give their opinions on what is a good film? Do you trust the views of your friends? Or are you more avant-garde and daring to go out see the movies for yourself. I have to admit that I can get easily diswayed with a lot of the popular observations that the public may make in terms of how they liked a film. This is one of the reasons why I like to go out and see movies when they first open avoiding as much hype as possible. Now of course there are some no brainers like the latest Jean Claude Van Damme movie, this is something to steer far away from or just about anything that Freddie Prinze Jr. is in!
What are you getting at you say? Well let me tell you that I just finished watching the DVD to M. Night Shyamalan's last film, UNBREAKABLE and I loved it! I know, I know most critics and people were extremely disappointed by it, virtually everyone I talked to about it panned it as a pretentious piece of self-important crap. And like a scene from the film itself I was approached by someone I knew when the film first came out, he asked me, "Have you seen UNBREAKABLE yet?" I told he that most people I talked to said that it was not worth my time. He proceeded to ask me if I liked comic books, me being an avid buyer for over 20 years I said, "Yeah..." "Then I think you'll get this movie." Well I forgot about it and went on with my life and then the film eventually made its' way onto DVD and I saw it there on the self sitting there. I always said to myself "next time." I'll pick it up the next time I come in, well I finally decided that today would be the day and I was virtually blown away by it!
The reason I think people may not have enjoyed the film was simply that they didn't get it. The premise of most comic books come down to this, good vs. evil. After everything is stripped away in UNBREAKABLE that is what you have! However Shyamalan goes further and layers the complexity with being a modern day hero, he fleshes out the life of David Dunn, (Bruce Willis) the sole survivor of a train wreck, also showcasing his incredible strength and the power he has with the ability to see into the dark nature of evildoers and preview the heinous acts they are about to do. But despite his incredible power he is frail, just like a normal man filled with regrets, isolation, guilt and despair. On the other spectrum is Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) who has a strong mind, a conviction so powerful that it keeps him from giving in to his "handicap" his nickname Mr. Glass derives from his affliction with easily breakable bones. Thus with this physical ailment Elijah must build his mind to compensate for that which he has lacking in the outer regions of his body.
Are you following me so far? You see in comic book lore every hero must have an anti hero or as we call then arch villains to battle with, the ying and the yang, the black and the white and so forth. Its' a tale that dates back to our creation God and Satan, if my Saturday Cathecism schooling is correct Satan was the most beautiful and best of God's angels until his greed led him to seek rule of his own world which God provided him in the form of Hades. Thus proves the point when Elijah proceeds to tell David that two foes in comic books usually start off as friends. Just apply that logic to Superman and Lex Luthor, childhood friends in Smallville, Charles Xavier and Magneto, Spider Man and the second Green Goblin, friends in High School and of course Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom! As the film develops you can see the explanations laid out for you as a road map to the comic book universe. Essentially what you have in a nutshell is comic book movie without the fancy gadgets, campy dialogue or tight, bright spandex uniforms. This is the adult's version here folks one that may be the same as BATMAN but with more depth and 3 dimensional characters that can fit in today's society making them more believable if you will.
I was lured in and went along for the ride up to the climax where Elijah says to David "Now its' time for us to shake hands", as though he were saying let the games begin. How could we not know that Elijah was the antithesis to David always dressed in black, extremely intelligent and just a bit mad, the signs were all there! I guess because I was so compelled by Elijah I didn't want to believe that he was the eventual villain but you cannot have one without the other and upon seeing the adulation of Elijah's character after finally having David accept his destiny, he knew that his life had purpose. I am hungry for more because in essence what we have here is a 2 hour origin story with the real life fabric of reality mixed in, you see comic book heroes and villains do indeed walk the earth in this film and they are just like you and me with just a little bit more than the average Joe. I would think that Shymalan's fine work would add a bit more credibility to the genre as he truly has a love for the artform with a movie that gives comic books the respect it truly deserves!
So then what is the moral of today's lessons? Well I guess you can say that everyone has different tastes so you have to make up your own mind therefore ultimately the only opinion that matters is your own. I mean how else can you explain the popularity of wrestling. So then the next time you see a comic book on the rack, don't dismiss or turn up your nose to it, because a lot more lies inside that what you may think...
Your Man in The Trenches,
Al Ortega
