just want to know what people think. should i go see it?

it looks pretty interesting so i'll report back

i hope it is.

what i liked...the alien/supernatural stuff was more of a backdrop, it wasn't the primary focus of the movie; the point of the movie was basically showing how things aren't always coincidence, sometimes it's just meant to be

what i didn't like...i would have liked to have seen the issues of the main family developed more, it would have gone on better with the point of the story; developing the characters more in the beginning would have made the ending a bit better

overall...i'd give it a C+

I went and saw the movie last night ...

... See, I enjoyed MOST of the movie -- I loved it up until one particular scene (which I will not mention for fear of ruining someone's experience of it). But, where the movie lost me was in it's philosophical message -- or in the theology which was cloaked over the message. I'm a practicing Buddhist of the Mahayana tradition, and my world-view does not always mesh with Western beliefs, Christianity, or American pop-culture. And, this was a movie where I experienced this clash of beliefs ... This movie has its share of both pop-culture and Christianity ...

... But, I loved the movie up until a certain scene (and that scene is very late in the movie) ... I imagine most folks will enjoy it ... Peace.

it's good.

I liked it more than his last 2 flicks, but you'll definitely see his steez.

one
k. orr

does it have a really good twist at the end as his first two did??

no twist....
this is not really a spoiler.... If you go see the movie, after about the 1st 1/2 hour you'll realize there's no twist.... there's some dry humor, that's not really haha funny, but some people were laughing I guess....
there are certain scenes that are supposed to make you jump out of your seat, but if you're familiar w/ the suspense/horror genre, you'll be more entertained laughing at other people jumping out of their seats....
7.5 out of 10,could have been a high 8 or 9, but the ending sort of fizzles out as M. Knight gets psuedo-theological/philosophical....

...if you competely hated 'Unbreakable, don't go see it. You might not appreciate it.

m e l a n i s m

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There were a lot of things I liked about this movie, in fact it could have been great...if it didn't turn into an episode of Touched By An Angel.

I could never give thumbs up to a movie that insults my intelligence (and my beliefs) this much. Very disappointing, I really thought M Night was hipper than this.

damn. i'm still gonna check it out eventually. i did hear that i shouldn't expect any real "thrills" even though they are calling it a thriller.

i really liked about 75% of it. good suspense, great comedy, m night is second to none working with child actors.

But the other 25% was so lame I walked out wanting to punch Shyamalan in the face. A friend described it perfectly:

"The 'core' of the movie was a crappy, obnoxious, poorly executed 'this is a message from the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints' commercial."

but i also didnt think that we'd actually get to see the aliens, either

Me neither. I mean the dude was a priest struggling with his faith. The events of the movie led him to again question his faith. Since the movie was told from his POV it made sense and it wasn't overly preachy. I'm sure if it centered arround his brother, the ex baseball player, it would have been rife with baseball and sports iconography (I'm not counting that one scene at the end). I saw the climax of the film a rationalization for him to indeed find strength in his calling especially after his brother berated him earlier. Believe me I'm no big fan of organized religion but I saw the humanistic quality in search rather than a spiritual one.

I'm also no fan and I wasn't bothered much by all that. It was a movie about the family, not aliens.

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because in this you can still believe if you want to that it really was all just coincidence, whereas in Frailty ***SPOILER*** you find out that the crazy religious folks were right. Yet i didnt hear alot of complaining about that one. See in this he has a speech about the two groups of people and some people see coincidence as just that, so if you want to you can believe it really was just coincidence that the girl always drank water and that the moms last words were "swing away" especially since "See" meant nothing. and if that does steer him towards religion, why does that bother you? could it not have been the same movie if he had been a buddhist monk and all this led him back to his beliefs?

The fact that he turns towards religion does not necessarily bother me. In fact I think if I were christian I'd be even more offended by the ludicrous brand of "faith" promoted in this film. In the world Shyamalan presents here, if you only believe in God he will spoonfeed you the answers that tie up every single loose end in your life, so there is never any real tragedy or injustice or even ambiguity.

Yes he includes this speech suggesting there are two types of people, those who believe and those who don't. And as the film evolves he leaves no room for doubt as to which of those groups is on the right path. No intelligent film would have so heavy-handedly and condescendingly endorsed one side over another.

M Night is supposedly a big fan of "You Can count on Me", which is why he had the Culkin in this, and originally cast Mark Ruffalo in Juaquin's part. That's funny to me after seeing "Signs", because "You Can Count On Me" had the polar opposite approach to faith and spirituality, so much more nuanced and even-handed.

EDIT: I think I understand what you mean, that what he was really trying to get across was that Mel Gibson was interpreting everything as "signs", but from an objective standpoint it was supposed to remain ambiguous. But if that's what he was trying to do I don't think he did it well at all.

> especially since "See" meant nothing.

*****************SPOILER********************

I thought that to, but upon further viewings I noticed that after his flashback where she told him to "see," they flashbacked to the part where he was telling his brother about the two groups. And how one groups views things as coincidence, and the other groups see's them as miracles. She wanted him to see the miracle in her death, is what I took away from it.

yeah, I sort of had that problem with the movie also...I sort of rolled my eyes at the idea that God sends space aliens to cause a worldwide scare, and kill some folks, just so that one guy could get his faith back, lol. Some kids would probably be traumatized at an experience like that, not thankful to the lawd for nearly getting them killed.

But that's just my personal philosophical ideas I guess. The movie itself is pretty damn good and tense. I dare say it's his best directed movie (as far as cinematography, camera shots, pacing, etc.). I want to go watch sixth sense and unbreakable again to compare.



--

I thought it was his best movie, I liked it a lot more than Sixth sense and unbreakable. There were some great scenes in this movie. The end could have been handled a little better I think, but it wasn't bad.

I C how the writers tried to tie in all the "unrelated
incidents" leading up to the climax, however I didn't like
the spook explanation of it. Otherwise it was a good flick,
and gives a different perspective on ecosystem dynamics.
Peace.