
Glass is the superhero movie that director and writer M. Night Shyamalan thought you wanted. Buy you actually dont.
Remember the 2000 movie Unbreakable with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson? No? About the guy with bones that easily break but is super smart (Elijah, played by Jackson) and the guy who cant break and is super strong (David, played by Willis). Starting to ring a bell?
Well, do you also remember Split? A 2016 movie with James McAvoy playing a guy with split personalities who kidnaps a bunch of girls and rambles on about the Beast he was sort of a super personality?
With that refresher on movies youve probably forgotten, or perhaps never seen, Shyamalan brings all the characters back for a shared universe sequel. Like Marvels Avengers, but bad.
Elijah, David and McAvoys split-personality character with too many names to mention, wind up in a psychiatric ward. Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) is trying to convince the three they dont have superpowers, its all in their heads. Meanwhile, Elijah (who now prefers to be called Mr. Glass) forms an escape plan.
The film tries desperately to be a sophisticated superhero film. Its not. It tries to add elements of horror. It doesnt. It tries to celebrate comic books. It fails.
So what is it? A mess, thats what it is.
Shyamalans script essentially has no plot. It meanders through the psych ward and, much like the characters, remains stuck there. The dialogue doesnt resemble real human conversation. The script also treats viewers as the least-intelligent people out there, over-explaining everything lest we miss the basic heroes-versus-villains story Glass attempts to tell.
The lack of substance causes the acting to suffer. Willis, Jackson and McAvoy are a solid cast, but a terrible script is kryptonite for even the strongest actor. Willis is stiff and seems like hes tired and doesnt want to be there. Jacksons character twitches through half the film in a sedated stupor, but enjoys being the baddie once hes conscious. McAvoy does the best with whats hes got considering hes playing more than 20 people in one body. He excels at giving each personality a distinct voice and body posture. But by the end, his performance loses what little spark it brought to the screen by overplaying the multi-personalities.
The worst part of the film is the constant comic book references. These arent the fun, pop culture easter eggs of Marvel of DC movies, they are generic references made by the characters. Elijah, a comic book aficionado, practically looks at the camera when he says things like this is the part of the comic book where The characters follow comic book tropes but make obvious, annoying references because they dont trust the audience to get it.