9. Unbreakable (2000)
I'm going to confess straight away that I kind of love
Unbreakable. I'm also aware that I'm probably in the relative minority when it comes to that notion: I totally understand why people aren't sure about this movie... it is kind of average, I guess, but there's just
something about it. Something that makes me want to wrap it in a blanket and ward off its critics with a flaming pitchfork. What I think draws me to it time and time again, though, is its concept: the idea behind
Unbreakable is pretty cool, and I think there was a lot more story to be mined here - story that M. Night Shyamalan took one look at and said, "Nah, I'm gonna do it the Shyamalan way," which we all know is a horrible, horrible idea. But the concept of a grown-up "superhero" living in the normal world (one without volcano lairs and CGI battles) and facing off against a very human "super-villain" is just brilliant. There's tons of potential. And yet the movie itself doesn't really seem realise this idea properly, I know, and shoots, instead, for a M. Night Shyamalan type revelation that could've occurred, like, halfway through the movie instead. A sequel to this thing was actually supposed to be made, which would've made everything fine, but instead we only got one Unbreakable movie, and it's mediocre by circumstance: the story was just getting good, and it just ends.