Glass

GLASS (12)

D: M. Night Shyamalan

Universal/Blinding Edge/Blumhouse (M. Night Shyamalan, Jason Blum, Marc Bienstock & Ashwin Rajan)

USA 🇺🇸 2019

129 mins

Thriller

W: M. Night Shyamalan 

DP: Mike Gioulakis

Ed: Luke Ciarrocchi & Blu Murray

Mus: West Dylan Thordson

James McAvoy (Kevin Wendell Crumb / The Horde), Bruce Willis (David Dunn / The Overseer), Samuel L. Jackson (Elijah Price / Mr. Glass), Sarah Paulson (Dr. Ellie Stapler), Anya Taylor-Joy (Casey Cooke), Spencer Treat Clark (Joseph Dunn)

A sequel to both Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2016), both of which were also directed by M. Night Shyamalan and considered amongst the filmmaker's best works.

It's imperative to have seen both preceding movies and it's impossible to review this movie without spoilers for them. 

In the closing moments of Split, it was hinted that it took place in the same cinematic universe as Unbreakable, thus giving birth to this sequel which takes place an unspecified amount of time after that movie ended. James McAvoy's schizophrenic Kevin Wendell Crumb and his horde of multiple personalities is still at large in the city of Philadelphia, and still abducting teenage girls to satisfy a bloodlust of The Beast, one of his multiple personalities that doesn't identify as human. Meanwhile, Bruce Willis' David Dunn is avenging vigilante justice in the city, dubbed The Overseer by the public, and is dedicated to hunting down the schizophrenic serial killer with the help of his son from their family-run security business.

The two men meet in an early skirmish and are both subsequently arrested and put under the care of Dr. Ellie Stapler at a psychiatric hospital, where she attempts to explain their phenomena with practicalities and science. Another patient at the hospital is Elijah Price / Mr. Glass, Samuel L. Jackson's character from Unbreakable, who plans to manipulate the arrival of the two new residents for his own means.

While the film gives another stage for McAvoy to showcase his excellent acting talents and wide range as he becomes the multiple personalities while incarcerated, Jackson isn't really given much to do except act cunning and Bruce Willis pretty much spends the entire movie moping in the background.

Unfortunately, the film concludes with an underwhelming climax right out of the left field which some may consider a twist, but I think it's more a giant middle finger to those who invested nearly 6 hours into the story and characters. Understandably, Shyamalan is a filmmaker who likes to play tricks with the audience and plot twists have very much become part of his repertoire, but the route he decided to go down with this was an insulting cop out.

Glass, for me, was amongst the most anticipated films of 2019, but unfortunately, it was a massive disappointment. 

This glass is definitely half-empty.

4/10