Unbreakable is a great film, and an even better superhero film. While it's often stated that it turns what is normally the first act of a superhero film (the discovery) into an entire movie, what really drives it home is that it remains relatively grounded, despite being a bit fantastical in nature.

Bruce Willis' character doesn't immediately start fighting crime, he doesn't go out and give his powers a joyride. He suppresses it, he tells himself at every turn that he isn't anything special. He lies about who he is, because he wants something normal in love. If anything, the film isn't so much about David Dunn discovering his abilities, because it's somewhat questionable that he may have always known he had them, it's about him accepting what he is capable of. It's a story about the soul crushing nature of settling, of not living up to your full potential. It's about a man who has spent his life denying his greatness, and eventually coming to embrace it, but that's one of the things that makes it seem real.

Too many superhero stories forget to maintain the humanity of their characters, even those ones like Spiderman which have always tried to make Peter Parker the average guy, but still write him with an above average personality and life. Where Unbreakable turns this all on its head, is that David's life doesn't get better because of what he can do, if anything, it's almost made it worse. Only through accepting who he really is, does he seem to fill the void that has existed in his life since his car accident. Even his survival of the train accident isn't met with much fanfare. Most people are fairly nonchalant about the whole thing, nobody in the story sees him as an exceptional person except for Mr. Glass, and David's son. He isn't made into a media star, he doesn't get mobbed by people at work, his marriage doesn't improve, he even gets shit on by a little old secretary, and this is probably the most real depiction of how most people react to incredible occurrences, with mild interest followed by general apathy. All these tiny scenes do an incredible job of setting and maintaining the tone of the film. The story doesn't go out of its way to make David's interactions with other people into a satire of day to day life, there's no comic relief or outlandish dialogue. Even his weakness is a very human, and understandable one. There's no magic rock, he's not ineffective against a color, it's just that the dude can't swim. It's very much just an extraordinary guy with very, very ordinary problems, and that lets the viewer identify with him. It allows the story to give plausible reaction to implausible events.

It's a shame that what was meant to be a trilogy died with the first film, when it could have been continued in other mediums, but it might also be a blessing to have been given an incredible first act that stands on its own two legs, than three acts that continually decline in quality.