Glass

Disclaimer:

The movie I’m reviewing is rated: PG-13

Be mindful that some inappropriate content will be included in this post.

Also: SPOILERS!!!

The boys are back! And together this time! Yeah, this movie was…eh. At best. It was a bit impressive how they were able to bring back all the original actors from both Unbreakable and Split for this mediocre showdown, but that’s about as impressive as this movie gets. To be fair, I haven’t had much time to go over the details of this movie, but that’s why I wanted to cover it. On account of me not knowing this film existed until two weeks ago, it seemed in keeping with Shyamalan’s favorite trope to cover it anyway.

Beyond that, is there anything I liked about the film? I’m legit asking. Mostly what I thought watching it for the first time was that it wasn’t dumb (for the most part), but just inoffensive and safe. Translation: it didn’t leave an impression on me. I suppose the ending was surprising, considering the choice most filmmakers would’ve made given the setup, but unlike Unbreakable, I’m not sure if it makes up for the rest of the film.

Am I biased, though? Is my opinion of the previous movie coloring my opinion of this one? Possibly, but let’s take a look. Punch through that metal door and grab your super-capes as we look into Glass.

Considering how much info the media knew about Kevin at the end of the last movie, you’d expect the cops would be hot on his heels. Because, of course, if you know that much about someone (their full name, where they worked, their base of operations, their appearance, and what mental disorders they suffer from) you won’t catch them within a week or two. Not to mention, this movie came out 2 years after the last one. If this is also expected to take place in modern day, this is just dumb.

Kevin (played again by James McAvoy) is also at the mercy of his other identities (according to the movie’s logic), so unless he spontaneously developed another identity specifically to keep him from being caught (which is highly unlikely), this doesn’t work. None of Kevin’s other personalities seem very well-equipped to elude the police in any way, shape, or form, so how has he managed 2 years without being caught? Regardless, it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the movie that I have this many gripes 90 seconds in.

I will admit, it gets a bit cooler when we see David Dunn (played again by Bruce Willis) return and take out some low-level criminals.

Honestly though, that’s about as interesting as this movie gets: kinda cool. It is a novel feeling to see all these characters together in the same movie, but that’s pretty much it. We’ll get into more detail later, but for now, they also brought back unexpected actors like David’s son, Joseph (played again by Spencer Treat Clark).

Casey Cooke (played again by Anya Taylor-Joy) returns, but is thankfully shoved into a supporting role.

Last, Elijah’s mother makes a comeback, an-

- oh, my God.
That’s embarrassing.
That’s really embarrassing.

I mean, the aging effects they used on her in the first movie were already kinda weird, but this just takes it to a whole new level. At this point, she looks younger than her supposed son. That feels…very wrong.

Also, Elijah himself (played again by Samuel L. Jackson) makes his comeback as well. Awesome! Everyone’s here! Now what? Well, at first we have David running into Kevin while out on patrol which leads David to Kevin’s hideout. Him and The Beast have a short-lived - yet cool - battle, only to be caught by the authorities and taken to Elijah’s mental institution. What follows is basically a bizarro-version of Unbreakable. So it’s really not worth repeating.

Now we’re treated to Dr. Ellie Staple (played by Sarah Paulson) who is basically all of Shyamalan’s over-indulgent writing in one character.

*I specialize in those individuals who believe they are superheroes.*
Because there’s a lot of those out there.

Despite Sarah Paulson being a pretty good actress, Dr. Staple is easily the dumbest part of this movie. Every time she opens her mouth I just want to punch her in the face. She uses the most exorbitant words in the English Dictionary to make the movie sound more important, is so far up her own ass I’m sure she can smell what she had for breakfast, and worst of all, she repeats everything from the first movie.

*I understand that the three of* ***you think you are superhuman****. That you don’t think you are normal. You’ve convinced yourselves you have extraordinary gifts, like something out of a comic book. I am here to discuss the possibility that* ***you are mistaken***.

This is what takes up the majority of the film: redoing Unbreakable. WHY?! We already saw Unbreakable and it was much better than this. In fact, none of the characters have anything original going on with them. Let’s look at the breakdown:

David needs to convince himself he’s a superhero.
- Saw that. (Unbreakable)
Elijah needs to have a purpose and know that he wasn’t a mistake.
- Been done. (Unbreakable)
The Horde needs to unleash The Beast on humanity and cleanse the “impure.”
- Yawn. (Split)
Joseph needs his father to be a superhero so he can help him and feel important.
- Broken record. (Unbreakable)
Casey needs to connect with Kevin to prevent The Beast from destroying society.
- Did you even watch your own series?! (Split)

I guess there’s a couple new things. Elijah’s mom has a bit more of an expanded role, though she’s basically just the “Caring Mother” trope. Also, David’s wife/Joseph’s mom is dead. What does this add to the story? Proof that this was a Disney collaboration. I know I answered my own question, shut up. Besides that, it’s pretty lame. There are some scenes that can be kinda cool, I guess, like when an orderly forces Kevin to rapidly switch between identities.

*D’ya know what woulda happen’d if she ‘ad gottin to that key, ya gobshite?*

*You can call me Norma. I am sorry about the whole lying thing, though.*

*Where is the man in the rain poncho?*
While James McAvoy is still awesome, this scene is overall pointless.
It doesn’t add anything and logically shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

There’s also this thing where Elijah doesn’t speak for the first half of the movie.

“Did they just ask Sam Jackson to do his best Stephen Hawking impression?” ~ My Sister

Since we go so long without hearing his voice, it is a bit jarring when another orderly threatens to break his leg because he thinks he’s faking.

*If, by mistake, I drop this heavy flashlight on your paper legs…*

*Have you been getting out of your room, Elijah?*

While it’s a tense moment, as soon as you think about it, it falls apart.
“Has Elijah been getting out of his room,” isn’t that what cameras are for?
Also, if you’ve seen *Unbreakable*, you know Elijah’s faking.
Remember that one scene in the back of the comic book store?

Also, before we discuss the climax, let’s go over one last major issue I have: Kevin’s relationship to everything. How is his story in any way related to David and Elijah’s? Remember when Dr. Staple said this?

*I specialize in those individuals who believe they are* ***superheroes***.
Since when did Kevin’s story have anything to do with superheroes?

From minute one, Kevin’s story has always been about him and his relationship with DID, not comics. Never did Split indicate a connection between Kevin and comics or convey a comic book tone. This is also why I think the decision to make Split a surprise sequel to Unbreakable was not a good choice. Since the movie spent so much time trying to blow your mind at the fact it was a sequel to a movie over a decade old, it lost time creating connections between the two films.

Think about it, what do Unbreakable and Split really have in common? When I looked at both films, I did so in their own context and not in relation to each other. This is because, for the most part, they are their own movies. If the intention was always to make a three-part series, then having an out of nowhere side-story in the middle of it makes everything more confusing. That’s pretty much what Split is to the series: an out of nowhere side-story in the middle of the narrative.

However, instead of treating it that way, the movie acts like Split was always an essential part of this series.

*Thith plathe ith for people who think they’re comic book characterth. And “The Horde” ith kinda like a comic book character name idn’it?*

Oh yeah, and Casey’s into comics now.
Despite the fact it doesn’t match her character at all.

*I don’t know about thethe other guyth, but* ***we are*** *like a thuperhero. We’re like “Duh du-du-****duh****!” We’re not crathy!*

No, movie, you can’t just say the last film had deeper connections with the first after the fact, you have to actually prove it in the movie itself. Anyway, with that out of the way, the climax is probably my favorite part of the film. This is mostly because the film becomes its own thing instead of just copying what Unbreakable did. It starts with Elijah breaking The Horde out of their cell and getting himself a sweet new pair o’ duds.

Now I know this is a comic book movie.
Also, Elijah’s got a pretty sick suit.
Check out his bling!

That’s my man, MG!
I just wanna eat him up.

Sidenote: this random orderly’s “getting crushed to death” acting is surprisingly good.

If this was the whole movie, I think I’d be satisfied.
I could watch this for hours.

Elijah also taunts David to come out of his cell, though David is still questioning if he’s actually a superhero or not -

- and eventually this results in a final showdown outside the institution.

Much of this fight is pretty well-choreographed and fun to watch, although there are a few hiccups here and there. Mostly in regards to Bruce Willis doing an action scene at his age. I, of course, don’t blame Willis for this, he can’t control the passage of time, I blame the filmmakers for not subbing him out with a stunt double, doing this movie nearly two decades after the release of the original film, or both. Because Willis is older now, some of his fighting moves can seem sluggish and even a bit weak.

It’s actually surprising when he manages to put a huge dent in an armored van using a punch I’d probably throw.

Once our three side characters (Joseph, Casey, and Elijah’s mom) come to intervene, Joseph reveals that Kevin’s dad was on the same train David was in the first film.

So, Elijah killed Kevin’s dad.
This is, surprisingly, *not* the twist.

The Beast then turns on Elijah and does quite a number on him.

I know he deserves it, but Jackson’s acting just makes it look so painful.
Also, I can’t stay mad at Elijah.

Eventually, the Institution’s security gets their act together and gangs up on both The Beast and David. One of them drags David over to a puddle and starts to drown him in his arch-nemesis.

Hey, “Mr. Drownypants” has a clover tattoo…
Is he a leprechaun?

Meanwhile, Casey gets in touch with The Beast and calls Kevin back. She calls Kevin back just long enough for him to get shot by another security guard.

I think I know the twist…
Someone stole their pot o’ gold.
If Warwick Davis doesn’t make a cameo at this point, I’m gonna be very disappointed.

It seems David and Kevin are out, but maybe Elijah’s gonna be okay -

So, yeah. Everyone’s dying. I’m sure this is exactly how you thought this movie was gonna end. When I first saw this, I thought that it was a pretty bold choice. To the movie’s credit, it is. Considering how most other films would try to find some excuse to have their main characters survive, that is worth something. However, it only works if it ends up meaning something. So, what does it mean? Remember when I said Dr. Staple was the dumbest part of this movie. Well - observe the twist:

You want to hear the explanation? Alright, here goes: Dr. Ellie Staple isn’t actually a doctor, she’s a member of a secret organization designed to cover up the existence of people with super abilities. This organization has apparently been around for over 10,000 years. Also, their calling card is the clover tattoo. For some reason.

First, there were no clues or hints about this organization in the film leading up to now. Second, there were no clues or hints to this organization’s existence in either of the two previous films. Third, WHY?! What’s the point?! What part of this organization’s existence helps us understand more about the message, characters, story, or series as a whole? I’ll tell you: nothing! Shyamalan is just playing Shyamalan Bingo with himself. Can this guy ever tell a straightforward story?

One thing that does give me joy is that apparently this organization is bad at their job. The whole time David and The Beast were fighting, the security cameras were recording it and Elijah streamed the surveillance footage to a secondary website.

*What have you done, Elijah?*
No, what have you done, ya idiot?
You had ***one*** job!

[screaming]
10,000 years down the drain, how does it feel?
I hear she could get the guillotine for this.

So the movie ends with the few characters who survived (Joseph, Casey, and Elijah’s mom) posting the rest of the surveillance footage online for the public to see, and we zoom out with society learning about the existence of superheroes.

All joking aside, I think this zoom out is pretty cool.
If you watch carefully, you can see each extra taking out their phones to see the news and having their own unique reactions.

Although, was that all this series was amounting to? People learning of the existence of superheroes? I don’t know, it seems kinda underwhelming. Not just because this is the last movie in the series, but since you literally killed everybody, this needed to go out on a stronger note.

I tried getting into it, but I just can’t. Given the scope of how awful Shyamalan films can get, this one isn’t one of his worst, but it’s very skippable. Outside of the climax and those few scenes here and there, there isn’t much to enjoy. I still can’t understand why the objective of this film was to repeat the entirety of Unbreakable’s themes when that film already did them and much better.

In fact, after I watched Unbreakable for the first time, I was excited to see a sequel to it that went all in on comic themes and tone culminating in a final showdown between the hero (David) and his arch nemesis (Elijah). If that’s what you’re looking for, that’s technically in this movie, but it takes a while to get there since Glass is also the longest film in the series at 2 hours and 8 minutes.

I suppose if you were a fan of Unbreakable and absolutely despise change, then you’ll probably like it fine. For my time, I’d rather just watch the original again. So if you’re ready for the showdown of the series in the last 20 minutes of this 2 hour film, then prepare yourselves for this action-packed weekend movie night with Glass.

With all the repeating going on here, I can’t help but give this movie a 1.5/5 Superman comics. Maybe if I zoned out with the movie in the background for the first hour and 35 minutes then I’d consider giving it a 2/5, but since I didn’t, I won’t.

(I make no claim of ownership for any of the images used in this post)

(Each of them are owned entirely by their respective copyright holders, which are not me)

(I’m just a humble blogger who talks about movies, I do not make them)

(Yet)

Annie

Split