Glass was the first movie of this year that I was actually looking forward to but I should have learned by now that anticipation usually leads to disappointment. This is the movie that connects the 18 year old Unbreakable with the 2 year old Split, both great movies but putting them together kind of didn’t work.
I’ll start off with some positives because this is by no means an awful movie. I can appreciate what Shyamalan brought to this movie as he once again did all of the writing and directing. I like the idea of a more realistic world in the superhero genre and which is what I loved about Unbreakable. But again it didn’t really work and we’ll get to that.
What else did I like, hmmm? Pretty much most of the scenes before Dunn and Kevin go to the psych ward because from there it all goes downhill. There are some interesting shots in the film but that doesn’t really help with how bland the movie looks. Also there are alot of close up shots which I found really annoying as I couldn’t tell what was happening.
Samuel L Jackson as Elijah or Mr Glass was pretty cool but that’s not a surprise as Sammy can normally make an otherwise crap movie great, just by his presence. But the best character of the movie is James McAvoy as Kevin Crumb/all his different personalities. James McAvoy steals the show for being the most interesting character in the room with his only real competition being Sammy. He was the highlight of Split and I think I would have preferred a sequel to Split rather than a crossover movie because now we’re heading into the negatives.
This is a comic book movie as well as a thriller and it sucks at both. I loved James McAvoy in this movie but his character is inconsistent. I strongly believe he works better as a horror movie villain as his personalities are very unpredictable and there is a bit of mystery there too. This movie ruins him by trying to explain his powers and it just never feels the same with him being out of his element. Dunn and Glass don’t really work in a horror environment as they weren’t made for that setting, unlike with Kevin.
It’s not really a good comic book movie as while watching this I feel like I’m back in the 2000’s when comic book movies weren’t yet a big thing. The subject matter feels a bit dated and not relevant anymore. They tried to connect the entire movie to comic books and it goes into great detail about it, which sounds interesting on paper but I couldn’t give a crap about that in a movie. (I’m the analytical one movie, not you!) The movie tries to be an intense thriller but it completely fails as none of the supposedly tense scenes made me flinch. Also there was a stupid violin cue every time they tried to be scary which I found super distracting and just made these scenes even worse.
The worst part of the movie is at the psych ward where Sarah Paulson holds up all the superfreaks and tries to convince them that they’re not comic book characters. If this works she will let them go, if not it’s the loony bin for them which honestly doesn’t make any sense. Unbreakable was all about Elijah Price trying to convince David Dunn that he was a superhero and throughout the movie it proves that he was right. What makes these scenes more tedious is that she tries to explain Dunn and Kevin’s superpowers but again ruins the characters and I’m guessing she forgot about that train crash from Unbreakable. She continues to be an idiot by telling the dangerous Kevin and the super genius Elijah where all the security cameras are which I found completely idiotic, especially when we find out how easy it is for the wheelchair bound Elijah to escape his cell. (Maybe it’s you who needs help woman.)
Bruce Willis is in it and he kind of just stands around and adds nothing to the story. (Bruce that might be the hint to stop being in movies.) The last thing I want to go through is the ending which makes this the second trilogy this year to have a god awful ending so spoilers from here until I say otherwise.
Spoilers
The movie was okay until the ending which was when it really went down the toilet. The ending of the movie has Elijah and Crumb outside the ward as they have a standoff against Dunn. It’s an okay fight – fight scenes aren’t Shyamalan’s strong suit. But then Shyamalan decides to use his favourite story device that made him famous in the first place. So the twist is that Crumb’s father was on the same train as Dunn when it crashed, which we know Elijah actually caused. So The Beast kills Elijah and then tries to finish off Dunn. Dunn is weakened then the girl (I can’t remember her name) turns The Beast into Kevin. But then, PLOT TWIST, Sarah Paulson never intended to let them go but was always going to kill them if they didn’t cooperate which begs the question why didn’t they just kill them to begin with? The superfreaks all die which really sucks as I never felt it was ever building towards their deaths and also they took forever to die which was really boring. (I also found it funny that Bruce Willis put up no fight to save his own life, that’s how much he cares.)
So all the evidence is deleted and it’s a really sucky ending but then bet you wouldn’t have guessed this PLOT TWIST Elijah’s big plan was to have the fight take place in the courtyard using all of the cameras so then he can upload them to his friends so they can leak it onto YouTube meaning he wins. The over usage of the plot twists really damaged the movie for me as it felt very gimmicky and forced. I should be shocked but I’m frowning because everything I just watched was a complete waste of time as the real action happened off screen. This ending is worse than How to Train your Dragon’s because the ending really ruined the 1 hr and 40 before this and just didn’t feel very satisfying. Also you killed off all the great characters in really cheap and awful ways. Now I’m stuck with these bland side characters who I wouldn’t be able to tell apart besides their gender.
Spoiler Free
Overall it was a very disappointing movie with an uninteresting plot, bland characters, Bruce Willis not giving a damn, poor tackling of the complex themes, tensionless scary scenes and that stupid ending! But it’s not a complete failure as there are some good things such as Shyamalan’s passion for this project, he’s trying but he’s not there yet, James McAvoy the movie stealer and the scenes before the ward which felt like a proper Unbreakable sequel and even a bit of a Split sequel. I think it’s a 5 to 6/10, I would probably avoid it at cinemas and just wait or I don’t know I presume you’re all adults so make what you will of my review and make up your own mind.
That’s the end of this review. Be sure to check in again when I have new stuff to show off. Until then I have been the Blog Complainer. Signing out.
The Blog Complainer 
I’m still debating whether I wanna see this movie or not.
LikeLike