I wasn’t a huge fan of writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s 2016 pseudo-psychological thriller, Split; but I was excited about its ending, which tied the film to one of my all-time favorites, Unbreakable, from way back in 2000. So, I was thrilled when I saw that Shyamalan would be making a third movie that brought together his tales of superheroes and villains on the “real” streets of Philadelphia. Unfortunately, this Glass is half-empty.
My biggest complaint with Split is that it was just downright annoying. A serial-killer with multiple personalities can be interesting, but after about five-minutes of listening to him you’re hoping he’ll put you out of your misery.
Actor James McAvoy’s performance as the “horde” of characters making up the killer, Kevin Crumb, is quite astounding, but a train-wreck is captivating too (plot pun intended); that doesn’t mean you don’t get tired of watching it after a short while.
All that said, the wackadoodle Kevin Crumb gets the majority of the screen time in this new film, which means you are in for a mostly aggravating two-plus hours of mind-numbing, in-your-face insanity (of the Hollywood variety); an insult, once again, to people with actual mental disabilities.
The story has the hero from Unbreakable, David Dunn (Bruce Willis), and his now-grown son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), trying to stop the aforementioned Kevin Crumb (McAvoy) from continuing his murder-spree.
Dunn and Crumb both end up in an asylum with Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), the mastermind villain from the first film. If you are fan of the titular Mr. Glass or of Mr. Jackson, don’t get yourself too worked up as he is in a catatonic state for the first half of this movie (or more.)
Enter Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), a psychologist who is trying to save the super-types from themselves by convincing them that they don’t actually have powers – boring psychological babbling ensues.
Glass is one of those movies you don’t want to think about too much, lest you walk out of the theater feeling like you had a lobotomy. After all the plot twists and misleading dialogue is said and done, this film is just kind of dumb – which is a shame.
If you liked Split, then you will likely enjoy Glass as well, and this one also stars Anya Taylor-Joy, the young heroine from the Split film. If you are comic-book fan, then you will be rolling your eyes at the clunky comic-book dialogue and genre exposition here. It is frustrating that this potentially awesome movie does not help our cause – at all.
Glass is too long by at least thirty-minutes and a one of those minutes is an awkward cameo by the director. I’m surprised he wants to show his face after shaming one of his best films (and its fans) by attaching it to this super-weak effort. Grade: 4/10
Photos Copyright © 2019 Universal Pictures
