Glass

This review may contain spoilers!

Unbreakable is a nearly twenty year old film documenting a very unique twist on the superhero origin film, while Split was a psychological thriller about a man with multiple personality disorder who kidnapped young women. These films were so diametrically opposed that they should never have worked together; and that's exactly what happened. I would give Glass a 3/10.

Glass sees everyday superhero, David Dunn, and the split personality killer, dubbed 'The Horde', captured by the enigmatic Dr. Staple who forces them to question the reality of their superhuman abilities. This film does strongly when it plays up big hype moments; these aren;t necessarily scenes that feel fulfilling but they generate a level of excitement that does the trick. Moments like the first confrontation between David and the Horde, watching Elijah stab one of his carers or seeing the bond form and break between Elijah and The Horde give this feature several passing moments of genuine thrill.

James McAvoy, who played Kevin Wendell Crumb and The Horde, does an amazing job with this gallery of roles just as he did in Split; McAvoy jumps through a number of different personas throughout this feature and is able to shape each of them in a way that strongly lends themselves to the scene.

However, the best performance came from Bruce Willis, who played David Dunn. I immediately think that this is one of those decisions that goes alongside which film you preferred out of Unbreakable or Split and I;m certainly not hiding my cards on that count. Willis is this quiet and humble figure guided by an innate sense of righteous justice and good to seek out crime and prevent it. I love watching this role because Willis crafts a grounded superhero in a way that we haven't really seen that often since Unbreakable came out. Dunn is a kind and caring father figure who is bound by a sense of duty to do what is right with his gifts. Watching Willis return to his character's doubts about his powers in this film was an engaging struggle to watch and seeing him overcome those doubts again in a final effort to confront the antagonists is a powerful moment.

Glass is an awkward film to watch because it smashes two films together that were already very loosely connected, the big flaw this feature possesses is how it attempts to justify tying Unbreakable and Split together. In a lot of ways the audience is holding out for the big confrontation between Dunn and The Horde but you're cheated of that moment at every turn. Firstly, if you haven't seen Unbreakable it's going to be difficult to understand who Bruce Willis is in this movie, let alone who Samuel L. Jackson is playing. The film is terrified of linking back to Unbreakable too much, even though one of the third act twists relies heavily on that film, because of the success of Split one main role is favoured ahead of the rest. Secondly, for a film titled 'Glass' Elijah remains near catatonic for about half the film before he decides to play much of a role, even then it doesn't have the same flair as it did back in Unbreakable and Jackson's character is swiftly shunted to the background for a more appealling role like The Horde. Finally, the film attempts to subvert expectations so much that the final product is more bland than compelling. Watching the main cast engage in philosophical debate around whether they have superhuman abilities seems ludicrous after witnessing several elements of the first act. Then when the main cast has been detained by a secret organisation the whole time you feel disappointed that the revelation had to come at the cost of the only interesting roles in the film. By the time the world is informed that marginally superhuman beings exist you can't help but wonder if the payoff was worth sitting through this tedious and overstretched narrative. The cinematography looks bland and if a still frame can be used the static, easier image will be sought out crafting a film that looks the worst of this supposed trilogy. The special effects don't flaunt much, making me wonder if the budget was upped at all after the financial success of Split. The score is rather monotonous, a brooding, wilting piece that saps traces of emotion out of scenes rather than add to them.

Samuel L. Jackson, who played Elijah Price, is rather disappointing as the title character of the film; Jackson phones in his invalid performance in a major way and only really puts in half what he gave the character in Unbreakable. Anya Taylor-Joy, who played Casey Cooke, is a relatively confusing role at this point whose relationship with McAvoy's seems all over the place; watching this character play an emotional anchor to McAvoy is a weird extreme after watching her efforts to survive him in Split. Sarah Paulson, who played Dr. Ellie Staple, is a very rigid role that seems to ramble through paragraphs of exposition at a time; Paulson is cool and indifferent in many of her scenes which evokes about as much emotion in a scene as you'd expect. Spencer Treat Clark, who played Joseph Dunn, was a truly charming figure back in Unbreakable, he doesn't have as much to offer these days; the relationship between him and Willis doesn't work the same and it has a much more stilted quality to it. Charlayne Woodard, who played Mrs Price, doesn't really need to be in this film and she doesn't really seem to know what she's doing either; Woodard has a barebones relationship with Jackson and she seems to be in scenes to fill the frame after a point. Luke Kirby and Adam David Thompson, who played Pierce and Daryl respectively, are fairly generic as the reckless carers for the superhuman inmates; Kirby's more antagonistic role doesn't provide much new and is a stereotype this simple narrative seems comfortable with.