Once upon a time, back in 2000, M Night Shyamalan made a movie called Unbreakable, a grounded, ambitious think-piece about superhero movies. The film received positive reviews but was often forgotten about as Shyamalan soon after gained a reputation for critically panned films that centered around a plot twist that would often come out of left field. It gained a cult following in later years, with some hailing it as an underrated masterpiece. In 2016, Shyamalan released Split, a psychological horror film about a man with dissociative identity disorder that also had superhuman abilities, also to positive reviews. The ending of that movie revealed that it was in the same universe as Shyamalan’s almost-forgotten about superhero film, and soon after, a sequel titled Glass, combining the characters from both movies, was announced. Some, like myself, were a bit skeptical at first. But after seeing the trailer for this, it looked like there was some potential for this to work.
And at first, this movie does work, even if it is a bit problematic at times. Some of the dialogue is heavy-handed. Even with a lot of his better work, Shyamalan has never exactly been a master of subtlety when it comes to his metaphors. He goes for grandiose-sounding dialogue that clearly is begging to make its way on AFI’s next “100 Years… 100 Movie Quotes” list, but it’s clear that The Sixth Sense’s “I see dead people,” line will be the only film of his on that list for the foreseeable future. Glass is filled with hammy, meta dialogue (most of which is delivered by Samuel L. Jackson) that clearly spells out to its audience what its intentions are, just in case you may have missed the point of the previous scene. It’s actually not the worst dialogue he’s written, and is even passable for the most part, but it’s obvious Shyamalan doesn’t want you to think too hard. He wants to make sure you know how philosophical his movie is meant to be.
I mention that a lot of the cheesier dialogue is delivered by Jackson, and it’s a shame because he’s clearly trying really hard with this. Jackson is one of those actors who, even when he’s in a stinker, is at the very least moderately enjoyable whenever he’s on screen. He’s such a naturally fun actor to watch that he has to try hard in order to do a poor job. And in Glass, he’s once again very enjoyable, and is doing his best with what he has to work with. As the titular character, Jackson plays the main villain and is clearly having a lot of fun with the role. He’s handed a lot of the film’s corniest dialogue that is so obviously self-serving, yet he gets so invested in the character that for a moment, he makes you forget that you just heard something almost totally nonsensical. Jackson is a true talent who knows how to take one man’s trash an turn it into another man’s treasure.
While Jackson is fun, the real treat to watch is James McAvoy, returning as Kevin Wendell Crumb and his 24 multiple personalities, known collectively as The Horde. Probably one of the biggest selling points of the trailer is just how much fun McAvoy is having with his character, probably even going more over the top than he did in his first outing as the character(s). And the film definitely delivers on what the trailer teased. McAvoy delivers some of the film’s more laugh-out-loud moments, as he continuously switches through all of Kevin’s different personalities, and displays such a kinetic, high amount of energy that you’re always waiting for who’s going to appear next and what they’re going to do. In a way, when he ends one scene as one personality, and begins the next scene as someone else, you almost forget for a brief moment that it’s the same actor in the two different scenes. Of the three main leads, he’s clearly given the most time to shine and done the most justice.
McAvoy’s Horde, along with Bruce Willis returning as Unbreakable’s David Dunn (more on him later), are placed in the same mental institution that Jackson’s Glass is placed in at the end of Unbreakable. The three are treated by Dr. Ellie Staple, played by Sarah Paulson, who attempts to convince the three that their supposed superhuman traits are nothing more than delusions of grandeur, and that all of the events of the previous two films can be easily reasoned away. And the characters themselves even begin to think that way. While I have no problem with Paulson as an actress, the inclusion of her character is easily one of the weakest, and most aggravating, additions to the movie, for multiple reasons.
Unbreakable gives us a superhero and his arch-nemesis. Split gives us a super villain to work with said arch-nemesis. For a good comparison of the three main characters, think of Superman II: Dunn is Superman, the Horde is General Zod, and Glass is Lex Luthor who bargained with Zod to work together to defeat Superman. It’s an interesting concept, as we think we’re getting a more realistic take on when a superhero and super villain going toe-to-toe, and their effects on the world around them. For them to be stifled by Paulson’s Dr. Staples and for her to go more than half a movie convincing them that they’re something they’re not - and in turn effectively even tricking the audience - essentially just takes away from the whole message of the first two movies and makes us wonder why we’re even bothering with this. Think of some movies and TV series you’ve seen only to find out the entire thing to be “just a dream.” It’s a cop-out, unnecessary sort of move that essentially makes what you’re watching a waste of time, and this movie begins to feel like a waste of time, despite the whole-hearted efforts of Willis, McAvoy, and Jackson.
Additionally, Paulson is essentially a walking plot device. You just know something is clearly wrong with her, as she’s nothing more than an obstacle who constantly repeats herself and literally does nothing more for most of the movie than just get in the way of the other three characters. Her views on superheroes and comic books reflect those of someone from an outdated PSA. She spouts such unrealistic lines that essentially say comic books are bad and have this negative effect on society that maybe would have been convincing in some propaganda piece years ago, but are really not convincing here in 2019 when superheroes are so integral to pop culture. Now, if this was any other movie, you’d just chalk her up to being a horribly written, one-dimensional character and that’s it. But, it’s Shyamalan. And you know Shyamalan can almost never go one movie without including some ludicrous twist in the third act in an attempt to spice things up, but usually end up frustrating the audience. So, with that in mind, you should already have a sense that there’s something more to a character as obviously fake as Paulson’s. And when you get to that reveal, you’re not satisfied with a sense of “I told you so,” having known that something was clearly amiss. Instead, when you see the direction this movie goes once the reveal takes place, you’re instead infuriated and have to hold yourself back from simply getting up and walking out on the last few minutes of the movie.
Shyamalan reveals one twist at the end that at first nicely connects all three movies together. It’s a little farfetched and coincidental, but not totally unbelievable. But instead of leaving it at the one connection, he instead decides to keep going and going to the point that you almost want to get up and scream, with probably the only thing stopping you being the fact you want to be courteous to your fellow movie-goers. It’s like Shyamalan thinks that since his last couple of movies got good reviews, he can suddenly just do whatever he wants, and no one will care. I won’t reveal any spoilers, but not only is this twist so incredibly blood-boiling by just how preposterous it is in and of itself, but it also essentially just slaps all three characters right in the face, and makes their journeys feel almost pointless.
Willis in particular gets the shortest end of the stick here. A character with so much potential, he’s clearly trying just as hard as McAvoy and Jackson are. I really wanted to see how much his character has grown since the events of Unbreakable. While his character gets off to a strong start - including some nicely written scenes between him and his son Joseph (reprised by Spencer Treat Clark - bringing back the once-child actor was actually a nice move on the movie’s part) he then spends most of this movie neutered and thrown to the wayside. He’s given almost little to do and when it seems like he’s finally going to get his time to shine, he’s instead hit with the events of the intelligence-insulting twist in the third act. One thing I stress in my other reviews that movies need to show respect for their characters in order to work, and this movie shows nothing but disrespect for David Dunn, who - along with Willis himself - deserved much better than this.
And last but not least, the twist of this movie also has an effect on one other major returning character whom I have yet to address - Anya-Taylor Joy as Casey, from Split. I really feel bad for Joy, as she is without a doubt a very talented actress, and has a lot of potential in her, she has never really been given her moment to truly stand out. Like everyone else in this movie, she’s working with what she’s got. But for most of the movie, Casey makes a series of extremely illogical decisions that feel completely out of character, given how she was portrayed in Split. There’s even one moment where Paulson’s Staples flat-out questions her reasoning for one of her decisions in this movie, and this ends up being the most sane piece of dialogue written in the entire movie. Casey’s story leads her to joining forces with some of the other supporting characters from the previous films that really takes its full effect by the end of the movie. The conclusion to her story feels so forced and manipulated, that those with uneasy stomachs may want to mentally prepare themselves before entering this movie, as it’s almost more sickening to watch than some of the graphic imagery of McAvoy’s Beast character devouring people.
Glass was a movie with a ton of potential that squanders just about every ounce of creativity it had in it. Despite some really questionable decisions made by previously well-written characters, as well as clunky dialogue, and plenty of moments that felt like a total waste of time, this actually had a fair amount of entertainment value for the first half the movie. This is almost completely thanks to the committed performances by McAvoy, Jackson, and Willis. However, all three actors don’t get the justice they deserve, and all their actions are just undone by a pretentious, self-serving twist at the end of the movie that tarnishes their legacies. This movie essentially is one giant waste of time and is a huge disappointment. Do yourself a favor. Watch Unbreakable. Then watch Split. Then just stop there and pretend this movie never existed. This is two hours of your life you’re not getting back, and you’ll be all the angrier for it if you do decide to sit all the way through.
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