M. Night Shyamalan Gives an Entertaining but Slightly Underwhelming Conclusion to His Trilogy - "Glass" Review

After playing David Dunn in 2000's Unbreakable, Bruce Willis returns with Samuel L. Jackson and Split's James McAvoy to conclude M. Night Shyamalan's Superhero trilogy along with Anya Taylor-Joy and Spencer Treat Clark. In Glass, which takes place three weeks after the events of Split, David Dunn uses his supernatural abilities to track down Kevin Wendell Crumb which leads both of them to being captured and locked up in a psychiatric facility which also holds Elijah Price aka Mr Glass. They are to be treated by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), a Psychiatrist who specializes in superhero delusions. Her goal is to convince her patients that there's a difference between comic books and the real world. She underestimates these three men especially Glass and Kevin and the escalating violence in the ensuing days leads Elijah Glass to his true goal.

I really enjoyed Unbreakable and Split which were both different levels of entertainment with McAvoy's mind blowing portrayal of Kevin Wendell Crumb and his other personalities in the latter being my favorite.. It's amazing how McAvoy is able to steal the spotlight from a legend like Jackson in Glass. He was the only reason Split worked and the major reason Glass is watchable. The dialogue is pretty heavy and I wish we got less of that. Jackson doesn't utter a word in the first act of the film as he pretended being catatonic and when he does, he says something really laughable like "First name Mister, last name Glass". It's always a joy watching Willis on screen but it was really McAvoy's performance that held this movie together and he deserves more recognition for this specific role. The first and second acts were good but it fell flat in the third act due to the underwhelming action sequences. Glass wasn't as entertaining as I hoped but it's certainly not as bad as the critics say it is. The first part of this trilogy was 19 years ago, so I expected a certain level of writing that would literally blow my mind and leave me wishing it never ended but it was the opposite. When David Dunn was revealed at the end of Split, it opened up the door to this trilogy but the "glass"was half empty in the final film. Dunn and Glass barely interact with each other and I didn't really see the importance of bringing back Anya Taylor-Joy's character. She seemed out of place and looked like she didn't belonged to this plot. The action scenes didn't seem well choreographed and was all over the place. I was anticipating a huge dose of satisfaction at the end of Glass but I ended up getting a little disappointed. Shyamalan's idea of this superhero trilogy was amazing but not well put together. Shyamalan must have struggled with connecting the three characters and it was obvious with the pace. Glass isn't as compelling as it's predecessors but it was a good conclusion to the trilogy.

You would be clueless seeing Glass if you haven't seen Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2016) so make sure you see them first.

RATING 7/10

GENRE Superhero Thriller

DIRECTOR M. Night Shyamalan

STARRING James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Paulson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Spencer Treat Clark