The moment I found out that “Split” was a secret sequel to “Unbreakable”, I knew I would end up seeing what ended up becoming “Glass”. Creating a shared universe was perhaps the best twist M. Night Shyamalan has ever pulled off. After so many failures and bombs, it was sort of nice and refreshing to see M. Night Shyamalan back in the spotlight. Shyamalan has given us a wide range of films from brilliantly done horror with “The Sixth Sense” to laughably terrible with “The Happening”. I knew going into “Glass” that it might go either way as far as quality was concerned.
“Glass” tells the story of David Dunn, the protagonist of “Unbreakable”, as he sets off to free four captive girls and find the man responsible for their capture. The girls are being held by Kevin Crumb, a man suffering from a form of multi-personality disorder. Kevin Crumb was the main character in the film “Split”. When the two finally clash, they are both captured and put into a mental health institution, the same institution in which Elijah Prince is also being held. Elijah Prince aka Mr. Glass was the man responsible for the deaths of countless lives in his pursuit to find a real life superhero. When David Dunn and Kevin Crumb arrive at the institution, Elijah puts his greatest plan yet into motion.
So, let me start by saying I enjoyed “Unbreakable” but I never thought it was a perfect movie. It had it’s own issues but it was an overall enjoyable movie. I will admit, I still have yet to see “Split”. I own it and have had the blu-ray for awhile now but I haven’t watched it yet. I probably will soon partly because of this film, but we will see. So, my opinion of “Glass” is about the same as my views on “Unbreakable”. It is a flawed movie but still fairly enjoyable. I have a feeling “Split” is probably the best of the trilogy however.
M. Night Shyamalan made some interesting choices with this film and some of them worked well and others, not so much. It is hard to get into what works and doesn’t without getting into spoilers which I won’t do but I will say the first half of the movie is extremely good. There is even a lot of good setups that get paid off later in the film. My main problem with the film was it’s last act. It wasn’t terrible and I understand why Shyamalan ended the film the way he did, but I think a more satisfying ending could have been written. I had a few better ideas myself just based off of other comic books. I also thought the movie could have benefited greatly with a bit more levity. The film doesn’t have to be as humor filled as a Marvel movie, but even the darker toned DC films have more lighter moments than “Glass” had. Real life situations can be humorous. It’s okay for an audience to enjoy a laugh or two.
Lastly, I want to discuss the performances real quick. James McAvoy does such a stellar job as Kevin Crumb/The Beast that it should be an award contender next Oscars. McAvoy was the main focus of this film and for good reason. Bruce Willis reprised his role of David Dunn/The Overseer after 19 years and gives one of the better performances he has given since “Unbreakable”. Unfortunately, he still seemed to be phoning it in a bit and he wasn’t in it as much as I had hoped. Willis is notoriously hard to work with so perhaps it was best he wasn’t in the film more. Samuel L. Jackson wasn’t given a lot to work with or much screen time but when he finally gets a chance to shine, he lights it up in a way only he can. It was also nice to see Anya Taylor-Joy, Spencer Treat Clark, and Charlayne Woodard reprise their roles from the previous films. Sarah Paulson plays a very key role to the plot and ending and they picked one of the best actresses working now to accomplish this chore.
“Glass” is a decent film which had the potential to be so much more. Given a slight rewrite and a slightly more focused story, it could have been seen as one of the best comic book movies ever and set up a future universe for our characters, instead we are left with a decent film which will probably be forgotten by most people in the span of a month.
Grade: B-
