Glass Review

Glass has a lot to live up to being a sequel to both Unbreakable and Split and concluding the “Eastrail #177” trilogy.

It has been 19 years since David Dunn (Bruce Willis) has accepted his role as a superhero and patrols the streets of Philadelphia. The media have dubbed him “The Overseer” and the police searching for him. David and his son, Joseph (Spencer Trent Clark) search for another superpowered being known as The Horde (James McAvoy) who has kidnapped four cheerleaders.

They both get captured during their battle and sent to a psychiatric hospital where Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) sets out to prove that the men are suffering from delusions of grandeur.

Unbreakable was a revolutionary film upon its release because it was a revisionist superhero film made before the superhero boom of the 2000s. It was a grounded take on the superhero genre, being about a man who discovers he has extraordinary powers and being convicted to use them for good. It was a deconstruction of the superhero tropes. Split was considered to be a return to form for M. Night Shyamalan who seemed for a long time like he was trying to torch his own career. It was a film that surprised many, including for its connection to Unbreakable.

Glass starts with a lot of promise – David is older and getting tired despite having superpowers. Yet he continues crime fighting and his son acts as his backroom support. David faced his greatest threat when he has to fight The Beast – both were equally strong and they had different fighting styles – David was a brawler, The Beast being more agile. They were themes to dig into like what drives David to keep fighting and facing the fact that there are more super-powered people in the world.

The potential was not fully realised when it moved into the hospital. Glass slows down into a more talky film with Paulson having the thankless task of speaking out the expository dialogue. Shyamalan’s films are known for being slow burns but he does take it too far with Glass as he ignores a basic rule of screenwriting – show, don’t tell. Information is explained rather than shown. Glass was made on a $20 million and most of that must have gone to the cast since most of the film is set in the grounds of the hospital.

Shyamalan does have a distinctive visual style, he favours long takes and steady cams which I am a fan of. This was best used for some of the action scenes – one of the best was when the camera focuses on one character as The Beast, who is released in the background.

Even though the film was titled Glass James McAvoy’s characters are the main focus. He is the most interesting figure because of his multiple personalities and he is the deadliest threat. Dennis, Patricia, and Hedwig were still the most prominent. Yet the film tries and turns McAvoy’s personalities into an anti-hero which is hard to accept because The Beast is a cannibal who kidnaps teenage girls. There is no sympathy for him no matter what justification the personality’s attempt. Nor is it believable that Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) would want anything to do with The Horde or be allowed to meet him after being arrested.

Despite playing the title character Samuel L. Jackson was drugged up for the first half of the film. He didn’t have much to do except stare blankly. Fortunately Jackson does return to the role properly he gets to show off his intelligence. Despite being physically the weakest character he always steps ahead of the other characters.

Willis has been stuck doing straight-to-DVD schlock partly because of his own arrogance. In many of those films he’s barely trying. So it was a relief to see him actually put some effect into a film. He did get to shine in the first act as the vigilante who kept fighting the good fight despite his advancing years. I wanted to see more of him and it was a huge shame that he was sidelined after the first act.

Like many of Shyamalan’s there is a twist and this was one of the weaker ones. The whole point of Unbreakable was that it was set in the real world yet most myths and legends had some basis in reality. It was implied that David and The Horde were rarities. But the reveal ends undermines this and for a film that wanted to deconstruct comic books and superheroes it felt well, too much like a comic book. Despite Glass being the end of a trilogy the ending leaves rooms for an expansion – like Heroes or Chronicle. But if there are more films in the franchise then new writers and directors should take over.

Glass was a film many were looking to and it is in a strange limbo – it’s not as bad as some critics have made it out to be, nor is it as satisfying as it should have be.