In what seems to be the conclusion to Shyamalan's muted superhero trilogy almost two decades in the making, Glass is quite the personal disappointment for me. Building upon the narratives presented in 2000's Unbreakable and 2017's Split, this film utterly fails at providing any kind of excitement in the superhero genre or testing of personal morals. I feel that this movie was completely unnecessary as Shyamalan should not have been suckered into the shared universe craze of recent cinematic history. Despite this movie's multiple, signature twists, the biggest twist of all was tricking us into believing this movie would get better as time went on.
Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, and James McAvoy reprise their roles as David Dunn, Elijah Price, and Kevin Wendell Crumb, respectively, in this third and final(?) installment of Shyamalan's Eastrail 177 trilogy. Set three weeks after the events of Split, Dunn finds himself hunting down the strangely strong and unpredictable Horde as he (they?) continues to kidnap and threaten young girls. Endowed with an unreasonably passionate sense of justice, Dunn and the Horde end up being captured and sent to a mental health facility, where they discover Price is also being held. The performances from these three and the characters that they play were my main reason for being incredibly ecstatic about this film. While I thought Unbreakable was a bit underwhelming, I love Split and I was definitely on board to see how these three would create a shared story. However, this entire film felt empty. Empty of message, empty of innovation, and empty of Shyamalan's typical filmmaking style. For a movie that claims it reinvents the superhero origin, there was nothing new about this story through its plot or characters. As they spend time together interacting and plotting in the facility, these characters do not develop at all. Dr. Ellie Staple, played by the constantly nervous Sarah Paulson, tries to get to the roots of these men and why they think they are superheroes in order to break them down. However, none of them ever truly change how they feel, making every beat of this movie pointless.
Along with the characters, there is nothing presented in terms of message or morals. Most of this film's dialogue seems to be rehashed from the previous two entries as creativity is nowhere to be found. This makes for a wildly uninteresting story building up tension that goes nowhere. Shyamalan's ambiguity throughout this movie could have led to some very interesting dialogue and connected to our real world in some way, but that opportunity was wasted. Instead, it seems as if he was just grasping at straws in order to find any way to relate to the shared universe culture of film today. Unbreakable and Split are both very good movies on their own and I feel like connecting these two stories was where everything began to fall downhill. If Shyamalan really wanted to get back into the world of Dunn and Price, he should have just made a straight-up sequel to his original film, as fans have been asking for for more than a decade. There are just the slightest of elements that prevent those two distinct stories from being one and the same and this film is enough proof of that.
Parts that I did enjoy, though, were the performances from the entire cast and their energy towards this world. The first act of the film and the exposition connecting the previous movies was incredible to see as Shyamalan nailed the set-up. The multiple connections and developments in the smallest details of these characters' stories worked surprisingly well together with the fantastic portrayals, but it was simply the directional execution that killed the hype. I also loved the production design and Mike Gioulakis' cinematography. For a self-financed film, the number of creative shots and focus on color design was extraordinary. The therapy scene between the four main characters was my absolute favorite, as their clashing personalities and dialogue were represented in both the colors they were wearing and the different camera techniques. Gioulakis' experience with horror, especially in 2014's criminally underrated It Follows, worked very well with the slightly askew story that Shyamalan was telling.
I would like to be able to say that Glass had a lot of potential, but that would be implying that its story had anything to offer. The excitement surrounding this film is something I was definitely a part of, as I thought Shyamalan would be able to connect these characters' stories in a satisfying way. However, this movie's broad, commercial appeal vastly overshadows its ability to give audiences anything new in terms of what a superhero story could be.
My Rating: ★★
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