‘Glass’ fails to live up to massive expectations
By Jack Murphy// Staff Writer
Nineteen years after M. Night Shyamalan’s classic superhero drama “Unbreakable” was released and only two years after Shyamalan’s immensely surprising thriller “Split”, we get the sequel to both films in the form of “Glass.” “Glass” stars James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sarah Paulson. In modern-day Philadelphia, David Dunn (Willis) is still fighting crime in the shadows as a vigilante and is tasked with finding four girls who were kidnapped by what people are calling The Horde (McAvoy). However, they are arrested early on and put into a mental hospital by Dr. Ellie Staple (Paulson). Now, she tries to convince the two alongside Elijah Price a.k.a. Mr. Glass (Jackson) that they are not superheroes and are just mentally ill. “Glass” is one of my most anticipated films of 2019 and I’ve been waiting years for a sequel to “Unbreakable,” one of the most underrated films of the last twenty years. M. Night Shyamalan did a fantastic job on that film, and I also really enjoyed “Split” and the twist at the end revealing itself to belong in the “Unbreakable” universe. So does Shyamalan stick the landing and deliver an amazing sequel to “Unbreakable?” Well, he almost did.
There are many positives with “Glass” that make it worth everyone’s time and money, especially James McAvoy’s performance. McAvoy, once again, plays Keven Wendell Crumb, a man suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder in which twenty-four personalities live inside Kevin, one of which being an immensely strong, animal-like super-human called The Beast. McAvoy is worth buying a ticket alone, as once again he gives an incredible performance. Once Crumb’s put into the mental hospital, the hospital sets up lights by his door. If the lights flash Crumb, it changes his personality. There’s a scene that’s a long one-take shot rotating around Crumb and Mr. Glass in which the light flashes a bunch of times. Hearing McAvoy change personalities so quickly is incredible.
Speaking of great shots, the cinematography by Mike Gioulakis is fantastic. Shyamalan and Gioulakis put a lot of time into crafting the most detailed shots possible, and I thank them for it. All the actors give good performances throughout the film, no one gives a bad performance. Even Bruce Willis is trying, which is more than most can expect from Bruce Willis these days. Finally, the first twenty minutes of “Glass” are absolutely fantastic, almost perfect. Sadly, the second act is where the film starts to go downhill.
The third act is what ruins “Glass” and it is a shame because there is truly a great film hidden in “Glass.” It abandons a moderate tone that takes time to give its characters more depth in pursuit of an ending that feels underserved and anticlimactic. Without going into spoiler territory, “Glass” does feature a twist like many other M. Night Shyamalan films such as “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” “The Visit,” and “Split” just to name a few. However, all of those twists have a great payoff because they make sense by the end of the film and have a great payoff. The twist in “Glass” does make sense, but it isn’t earned and leaves the audience desiring more.
Another issue with “Glass” is the film’s use of Bruce Willis’s character, David Dunn. “Glass” really throws Dunn aside for most of the second half of the film and focuses more on Mr. Glass and The Horde, leaving Dunn in his cell. David Dunn’s arc in “Glass” is the nearly the exact same as “Unbreakable,” except he believes he is a superhero at the beginning of “Glass,” unlike the beginning of “Unbreakable.” For a film that’s supposed to be a sequel to “Unbreakable,” it really is a sequel to “Split” featuring characters from “Unbreakable.”
While “Glass” succeeds in many areas, it disappoints on a number of other levels and fails to live up to the hype of being a sequel to “Unbreakable.” However, compared to some of M. Night Shyamalan’s other works, this is far from worst, and just a couple notches below the best. I’m gonna give “Glass” a C+, it just depends on what you’re looking for in “Glass,” that’ll determine your opinion of “Glass.”
The long-awaited sequel to ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Split’ hit theaters on Jan. 18.
Photo by Universal Studios