GLASS (2019) Review

The 21st century has revolutionized the superhero, categorized it to its own genre, and reformulated an entire viewing experience. In a world of Captain Americas and Iron Mans, M. Night Shyamalan has constructed an entirely different world about the same kinds of characters, from an entirely different angle. With UNBREAKABLE, Shyamalan created an origin story for “everyday superheroes”, which was continued surprisingly and twistingly in SPLIT, and has now ultimately and unsurprisingly concluded with the epic and unsatisfactory classic third-act conclusion in his (hopefully) trilogy-finale GLASS.

With the recent kidnappings of DID sufferer Kevin Crumb (James McAvoy), who lives through 24 different personalities, looming over David Dunne’s (Bruce Willis) conscious, he decides to use his powers as the Overseer to attempt to catch Crumb. When this confrontation fails, and finds both Crumb and Dunne in a mental institution alongside famous madman Elijah Price (Samuel L Jackson), all 3 are faced with confronting their identities and histories by a psychiatrist (Sarah Paulson) who is determined to make them all believe they are no more than normal.

M. Night Shyamalan has cemented himself as one of the most conflicted and influential directors of our time. The most effective of his works being THE SIXTH SENSE, which instantly became a cult classic and began Shyamalan’s rise to the title of Mr. Twist. Now, and especially in GLASS, Shyamalan’s reputation has forced itself more directly into his filmmaking and direction, in that his famous twist(s) is coming, and you do everything in your power to look for any clues, which can work sometimes. However, having backed himself into a corner full of superficial twists and turns, Shyamalan ultimately fails to create meaningful dialogue and gravitas, even with these very interesting characters and a very stimulating narrative.

In terms of performances, James McAvoy was the obvious standout. Playing 20+ characters, McAvoy was able not only to shift voices, but also seemed to shift his body chemistry and facial features to match the personality. It is an amazing feat to see, and McAvoy does not disappoint; he did not need any particularly amazing dialogue, he was able to show the ups and downs of many different characters solely by altering his movements, posture, and tone.

While the ending is easy to fixate on, it is difficult to tear your eyes away from a mess such as it. Even though the first two acts were enough to sustain a formidable but satisfying conclusion, carrying on the tone of the first two movies and developing characters as humans and as super-beings, the conclusion ultimately ends with contradiction. It mashes many ideas together that would only work if the entire trilogy had been a cluster. Unfortunately for Shyamalan, he was able to make very coherent and tenacious, leaving his trilogy-ending GLASS to feel unsatisfying and unable to carry the weight of what he wanted so badly to prove.

Jade

Score: 5.3/10

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After 2000’s “Unbreakable” and 2017’s “Split,” a trilogy that has been in the making for 19 years comes to an end with the long awaited “Glass.” M. Night Shyamalan’s first and only franchise will surely be looked back upon as a massive success, that is to say if it will be looked back upon at all. The ending of Glass seems to suggest that there could be more to come- an idea that excites me and many others who enjoyed all three films.

Glass starts out strong, delivering solid plot points in several different genres: Thriller, Drama and Mystery. As the paths of David Dunn, Kevin Crumb and Elijah Price cross again, the characters only become more complex and interesting. James McAvoy certainly steals the show; his portrayal of The Horde is most likely one of the most interesting things to be seen on the big screen this year.

In our modern superhero-saturated blockbuster scene, a more realistic and gritty take on super-humans in the real world feels somewhat refreshing when executed nicely. Although, Glass certainly does become sloppier in its third act, leaving much to be desired after the interesting conflict that was built up slowly and carefully before it.

Dace

Score: 7.4/10

6.4/10

If you want to read more, Dace and I were featured in this week's St. Albert Gazette as a part of a panel review for GLASS! We want to thank Scott Hayes for the opportunity and are super excited to have our thoughts in print! Read it here: https://www.stalbertgazette.com/article/a-panel-of-glass-20190122