When I saw the trailers on tv for this movie I thought it would definitely be worth seeing but waited for it to come out on video – I prefer to watch movies at home rather than sit in an uncomfortable cinema seat with numb legs and butt!!
So we got this a couple of nights ago and bought the usual - popcorn – ice-cream – bars of chocolate(you need to be prepared when watching a movie, what if hunger strikes).
Its also a good excuse to make a pig of yourself (yummy).
So everything was set – we had our food supply’s ready and our comfy seats – remote in hand and off you go.
I must warn you that I am about to reveal the plot so if you don’t want to know about the contents of the movie click off now.
Still here I see!! Okay then – The movie starts with some writing on the screen saying how popular comic books are in the States. How they sell thousands a day and millions a year. Then the opening sequence sees a woman who has just given birth – she is obviously happy to have her bundle of joy in her arms and in walks the Doctor to give the child a quick examination as there wasn’t a Doctor present at the birth (happened to quickly). He takes the child (a boy) from his Mother and after just a few seconds asks if anyone has dropped the baby and of coarse everyone says no. He then breaks the news to the Mother that the child has been born with broken arms and legs, she is very shocked and starts to cry. The child is Elijah Price (aka Samuel L Jackson) he was born with a rare brittle bones type syndrome. He breaks very easily and finds life extremely hard. He finds refuge in comic books and when he grows up he becomes a comic book dealer.
Then you meet David Dunn (aka Bruce Willis) He’s a security guard and his marriage is on the rocks. He is on board a train when it derails and everyone on board is killed with the exception of himself. He wakes up in hospital without a scratch on him – he attends a memorial service for the people who died in the crash and when he returns to his vehicle there is a card on his windscreen. It asks a simple question “how many days in your life have you been sick”.
This really makes him think – he taps on his wife bedroom door(they don’t share anymore) and asks if she can remember the last time he was sick.
She fails to remember and now his mind is ticking away.
He then visits Elijah’s shop – he tracked him down by the card he sent.
Elijah puts it to David that he is some sort of super hero and unbreakable – sort of the exact opposite of himself. David’s son Joseph is very keen on this idea and later in the movie tries to convince his Dad that he is actually unbreakable!
Joseph finds his Dads gun and bullets and aims the gun at him saying it won’t hurt and he shouldn’t be afraid (yeah right).
David convinces his son to put the gun down by telling him he will be in big trouble if he doesn’t. His Mother is also in the room and tells him that Elijah was wrong and his Dad isn’t a super hero and if he shots him he will be hurt. I was cringing at this point. What a nightmare!!
He does put the gun down you will be pleased to know and the movie moves on – David is trying to remember his past – was he ever sick!!
Well not sick but he’d had a few accidents.
When he was a young boy he almost killed in a swimming accident – so now you know his weakness!! Like all Super Heroes he had to have one didn’t he?
I will not tell you any more as this is quite enough I think to give you a general idea of the story line – I enjoyed this movie but not as much as I thought I would – to many references to comics for my liking but if your into that sort of thing then this is the movie for you.
I’m not saying you have to have an interest in comics but it would help!
The movie took to long to get to the point for me and there was not much action in it – even the train derailment was brushed over. Not that I want to see blood and gore or any thing but a bit more action would have made it more entertaining for me.
The end of the movie was slightly disappointing for a few reasons,
(1) It left me with questions
(2) The last 20 minutes were where the action was. I thought it could have been paced out a bit better.
CONCLUSION
I would recommend you watch this when you have the patience for a slow moving movie. Its not one I will add to my list of movies I could watch again, to slow ! I thought all the actors were well cast and played their parts well, I can’t grumble in that department. I thought the story line was a good idea but for me it didn’t work out as well as it could have.
If you do watch this I think you will be left like I was, wanting more!
CAST
Bruce Willis – Samuel L Jackson – Charlayne Woodard – Robin Wright Penn – Spencer Treat Clark.
DIRECTED BY – M Night Shyamalan (also directed The Sixth Sense)