Glass Shatters Under Its Own Expectations

    

       Most audiences can agree that M. Night Shyamalan has had an unusual career as being both screenwriter and director. Beginning with directing a reasonably decent kids movie with Wide Awake then creating a breakthrough smash with The Sixth Sense and achieving critical acclaim with that film, Unbreakable and Signs, Shyamalan saw his career take a downward spiral with a decrease in quality, acclaim, and box office from films such as The Village to Lady In The Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth. For a moment it seemed like M. Night would never achieve the same kind of acclaim and audience anticipation his films had when he first started his career. Then he directed The Visit and that film was released to much stronger reviews than any of his most recent films prior to it's release. What audiences were hoping for before and after seeing The Visit is somehow Shymalan would return to his roots of doing smaller budget stories that kept him grounded while also allowing him to exercise his creativity rather than go off the rails with his ideas and conjuring the same type of climactic plot twist over and over again. With the release of Split, audiences were once again convinced that M. Night was on his way back to the top as that film not only was a surprise box office smash but was a solid movie overall. The twist that made audiences excited for the release of Glass was the climax of Split revealing it's story to be a sequel to Unbreakable, one of Shymalan's few good films. With that revelation, much anticipation was placed upon Glass being the final film in the Unbreakable trilogy, the belief was that M. Night could finally reestablish himself as being one of Hollywood's strongest filmmakers as well as recapture the glory he achieved upon directing The Sixth Sense. Sadly those hopes and expectations have been shattered as Glass not only proves to be a disappointing final chapter in the acclaimed trilogy, it also halts the momentum that Shymalan was building for himself with a career that was essentially experiencing a major comeback.

Watch the trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ghQs5AmNk

      The plot for Glass takes place after the events of both Unbreakable and Split with security guard David Dunn played by Bruce Willis, using his supernatural abilities to track down disturbed individual Kevin Wendell Crumb, a kidnapper of young women played by James McAvoy with a total of twenty-four different personalities. Picking up from where Split ended, Shymalan combines the characters Elijah and David from Unbreakable played by Samuel L. Jackson and Willis, with McAvoy's character from Split as well as the only surviving victim of his personality named The Beast with Anya Taylor-Joy reprising her role. Glass has Davids character encountering The Beast personality of Kevin in a series of escalating encounters with their last one ending with both men being placed in a mental asylum with Samuel L. Jacksons character. The presence of Elijah Price in the asylum reveals himself to be an orchestrator of the events in the story while having critical knowledge of both men. The end twist for Unbreakable revealed Jacksons character to be the orchestrator behind several horrific accidents in that film, including the trainwreck that Bruce Willis character survives in that movie in an effort to find a person with superpowers to oppose him. The Unbreakable trilogy is an unusual one in recent memory as it's a trilogy that didn't feel like one from the start as Unbreakables ending felt like an open and closed storyline. That film while not as good as The Sixth Sense, still worked as a quiet suspense film that flirted with the comic book genre. The concept of an everyday person surviving a deadly trainwreck and being told that they have supernatural abilities sounds both intriguing and creative.

      What made Unbreakable work was it's concept though clever, tried to blend together two genres with the same Hitchcock style of directing Shymalan used in The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis once again in the lead. That film carried a supernatural tone to it while at the same time deconstructed the superhero genre to the point where it couldn't almost be labeled as a superhero movie. As far as the Shymalan and Bruce team up goes.Willis appears to do his best acting when him and M. Night are paired up together on a project. For some unusual reason they manage to bring out the best in each other talent wise as all their collaborations together up until now have been hits. Unbreakable was a very good thriller that brought twist and turns while adding something deeper to the comic book genre which at the time was still trying to find it's mature tone in Cinema. With the plot of Split, it didn't feel like a sequel to Unbreakable at all until it was acknowledged at the end with the presence of Willis character David. Instead of directly continuing the storyline of Unbreakable, Split focuses on three girls being kidnapped by kevin's character, who showcases twenty-three different personalities with them fighting to escape before the emergence of a twenty-fourth. The challenge that Shymalan had with Glass was tying the storylines of both films together to create a film that advances both plots while merging them together to come up with a fitting climax. The problem that arises with doing so is the film finds itself struggling to decide whether it's a sequel to Unbreakable or Split as Bruce Willis characters arc takes a backseat to James McAvoys character who receives more screentime.

      In terms of acting, writing, and directing, Glass receives high marks in the acting department with all three of it's main stars delivering strong performances, showing their commitment to the story and vision of it's creator which is admirable. Bruce Willis does the best job he can with the material he's given in this film, it's not his fault that his character arc starts off strong then ends up taking a backseat to Kevin and Elijah in the story with David's concluding arc being both highly disappointing and frustrating. Samuel L. Jackson does a solid job playing the character of Elijah, making the character feel as consistent as he was in the previous movie except now Jackson embraces the twist with his character at the end of Unbreakable. Unlike David, Elijah remains an interesting character despite him struggling to receive as much screentime as Kevin played by James McAvoy. Despite the feeling that his character overshadows the other main stars, McAvoy does a terrific job playing his character and being able to switch personalities which was an essential part of what made Split a success. Anya-Taylor-Joy does a good job reprising her role from the previous film with her character trying to reach the one personality of Kevin which still possesses innocence and decency. Sarah Paulson does very well playing Asylum Dr. Ellie Staple, a psychiatrist that tries to convince the main characters that there are no supernatural abilities. The inclusion of young actor Spencer Treat Clark from the first movie as Davids son now as an adult was a noble touch that added nostalgia to the story for die hard fans of Unbreakable.

      Despite the films shortcomings with it's script, the main cast managed to deliver strong performances all around. As far as directing goes, Shymalan creates a dark and mysterious atmosphere that's well-executed and thought out. Here he creates an atmosphere that is both suspenseful and twisted showing that he still has what it takes to create a dark yet compelling tale. The atmosphere is stylized and color-coded to enhance the visuals of the world surrounding the characters in the story. The narrative of the film isn't misguided, it's the juggling of the two different storylines and its characters where the film falls apart and ultimately lets its audience down. The progression of the films story along with Shymalan's attempt to throw every twist and turn at the audience makes them feel as if the story is heading for an explosive climax that never arrives. While that can be considered a noble effort on the directors part to divert from the audiences expectations, it's a major letdown given the actual climactic twist of the story and the slow-pacing of the film up to that point. The movies score also doesn't hit home the way James Newton Howard's score in Unbreakable stuck with audiences, particularly the moments where Bruce Willis character was heroic. It's not a question of whether Glass was a well-shot movie, it's a question of whether the direction that M.Night took the story and characters was the right one which in this case it wasn't because the end result is a mediocre yet disappointing finale.

      Compared to some of the worst films of Shymalan's career, Glass is not a terrible movie by any means nor on the same level as films such as The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth. If one were to rank it within his filmography, it falls somewhere in the middle just above The Village but right below the set of good films on his resume. Glass has moments where it has potential to be the sequel that fans of Unbreakable have been waiting for but overall feels unworthy as a follow-up to that film. It works better as a sequel to Split than it does the original but given that this film is meant to be a trilogy capper, it's not enough to call it a satisfactory conclusion to both movies. Out of all three films, this is the one that will unquestionably split fans of the series or Shymalan as a filmmaker in general. Some of the audience will come out of this one feeling that it's a strong finish to the series and M. Night has reestablished himself as one of the best directors in the business pulling off the ultimate comeback. Others will walk into this one with great anticipation and feel disappointed that while the overall film itself is mediocre at best, it's a huge disappointment given what it could've been and what it was marketed to be which is a suspenseful and action-packed finish with deep psychological thrills. This movie really should be judged by those who've seen both Unbreakable and Split so they are familiar with the characters and storyline of the previous films. Those who haven't seen those films and walk into Glass will be confused about the hype surrounding it and not understand it's place in the Unbreakable cinematic universe. If this is Shymalan's attempt to copy Marvel and create his own timeline of movies within the Unbreakable storyline, then he fails. Fans of the previous two films deserve much better than this especially given that the third act of the film is a major letdown with poor twists and character actions that the film got rightly criticized for. Perhaps someday M. Night Shymalan will make a film that will have an impact with audiences the way his earlier films did but sadly, this is not it. The first big cinematic disappointment of 2019 thus far.

Final Verdict:
Redbox it if you're a fan of Unbreakable and Split, otherwise skip it.