Glass (2019) - Movie Review

Glass may be a trilogy. Or it may be M. Night Shyamalan's attempt to bring together his films Unbreakable and Split. I think the general consensus is that this is the final installment of a planned trilogy. My impression is different. This feels like an afterthought to me. A contrived, sloppy attempt to reconcile the previous films into a single narrative. I could be wrong here. I don't know that we will ever know for sure. Because this film does combine the previous two films, I will call it a trilogy, even if it was an unplanned one.

David Dunn (Bruce Willis) owns a small security company. It seems apt that a guy who hunts petty criminals would sell camera and alarm systems to potential victims. Dunn was the lone survivor of a train crash. He has an uncanny ability to survive. His strength is superhuman. His weakness is water. It is a classic comic book irony. Every super human has to have their kryptonite. Kevin Crumb (James McAvoy) had a troubled upbringing. His disturbing past created a split personality with twenty different entities residing in his head. One of them, the Beast, has super human strength as well. Crumb is also a serial killer who preys on young girls. Some of his personalities don't approve. Collectively, they call themselves "the horde." Mr. Glass AKA Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) is an evil mastermind. He has a rare disorder that makes his bones as brittle as glass. He has a keen intellect that allows him to think many moves ahead. Even in a drug-induced stupor. The three characters are brought together by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) at a psychiatric hospital for treatment. Crumb is controlled by flashing strobe lights, Dunn by water jets and Glass through massive doses of sedative. It seems a recipe for disaster, destined to set up the classic battle of good vs. evil.

This is another original screenplay from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan who doesn't seem to quite recreate the magic of Sixth Sense. That film stands alone as a work of genius. Films like The Village failed to measure up. Coming out of the gate with a blockbuster makes it hard to measure up to with later films. I enjoyed Unbreakable. Split was a little bit disappointing. I think I liked this film somewhere in the same range of Split. It was good, but disappointing. The characters are great. It just feels contrived and a bit sloppy. The pacing was uneven. It was good for stretches, but also felt bogged down at times. I would have liked a film that was a bit tighter and less contrived.

The bright spot of Glass is the cast. Bruce Willis is amazing for guy in his sixties. He still delivers. And he is believable. Jackson is over-saturated for me. It would be nice to go to the theater and watch the trailers without seeing him. He was in two of the trailers for Glass. It's ridiculous. It's like Hollywood can't find anyone other than him or Duane Johnson to star in a film. But honestly, he is solid. He is typecast, but solid. The star of this cast was James McAvoy. He looked jacked as the Beast. And his transition between characters felt seamless. Often in rapid succession. It was eerie. McAvoy is growing on me. The rest of the cast was solid. Although I do have one complaint about the costumes and make up. Charlayne Woodard plays Elijah Price's mother (she is actually five years younger than Jackson). The make up they used to make her look older had a plastic texture to it. It was unnecessarily distracting to me.

Like many superhero films, Glass targets a teen audience. The film navigates the MPAA deftly, earning a friendly PG-13 rating. The film deals with some tough issues like kidnapped girls and talk of murder. The film includes a couple of deaths with a mild gore factor. There are also some language issues, although modest. This film should be fine for teens and tweens or above. The plot can be hard to follow and may be confusing to younger viewers. I don't think it would induce nightmares, although there are a couple of tense scenes. The run time is a bit long at two hours, nine minutes.

Glass will appeal to the Shyamalan fan-boys. It will deliver for fans of comic-derived films. I enjoyed it. It could have been better. The pacing was uneven and the plot convoluted, but the characters were engaging. The film had everything one would expect from a superhero film. In fact, in case you aren't tracking, the dialogue often queues the audience in as to how certain scenes fit into the classic comic narrative. It was an interesting "almost-fourth-wall" choice that wasn't too distracting. I think Shyamalan was having a bit of fun with the audience. While I left this film a bit disappointed, I managed to like it enough to give it a favorable rating. 7/10.