Glass

McAvoy and Willis are outstanding, as they finally have some good roles after a long time. Samuel L. Jackson doesn't take any chances, but he is surprisingly pushed into the background. Glass picks up nicely where we left off twenty years ago. Yes, times have changed since Unbreakable and maybe we don’t need another movie like that. But still it makes for a pleasant and down-to-earth contrast to today’s comic-book blockbusters. It works as it should, but it just lacks anything shocking after all of the X-Men movies. Even so, Shy offers solid and quite surprising twists. This had to have been an unpleasant surprise for those who have only seen Split, but not Unbreakable. They wouldn't be able to make heads or tails out of it. (20/01/2019)

The idea itself isn't bad, but its execution is, as with Split, mostly inadvertently ridiculous. I liked that the film wanted to work with comic stereotypes as much as the (great) Unbreakable, that unlike the previous picture it wasn't just a solo by the overacting James McAvoy and that I saw Bruce Willis in the movie theatre again. But there was still something grinding about it. Primarily in the prison... And then in front of it. Well, the introduction did look quite promising. (22/01/2019)

With the themes, the involvement of the three, Paulson's role in the action, and the plot arc (across the episodes as a whole, not just this one), this is undeniably an interesting yet logical culmination of the trilogy, and one that works particularly well on a meta level, as since Unbreakable, we are now in the "cinematic age of the superhero". That's exactly how it works in the fist hour, and with that in mind, it goes down some interesting paths where Shyamalan isn't afraid to toy with expectations. The problem, and quite a major one, is the second half, when it doesn't so much shift in place as shuffle backwards on a square inch. It unfolds hastily in scenes where you always know safely in advance what is going to happen and how it is going to happen and where it is going, so that sometimes you wait for tens of minutes before it finally happens and then it is explained to you at length. Even the potentially powerful "whispering to the trio" scenes are stripped down and not for a moment convincing. This is doubly disappointing, because the second half pretends "as if the whispering worked and made the people in question angry", which no one, thanks to the unconvincing delivery, can believe for a second. On paper, it all might have made sense to Shyamalan and seemed on the level of Unbreakable, but the execution stalls, and despite a solid pacing and a supportive overall plane, the crappy second half sinks it cruelly. It's not bad, it's not unintentionally funny, it's just very good at first before it becomes very boring. (07/02/2021)

Mr. Shyamalan put a lot effort into this one. He works consistently with the dramatic potential of the three main characters and their deepening interactions, which bring them closer to one another in the same house. The story escalates and entertains by exploring and uncovering the essence of the brilliant theme (the magical idea of comic book heroes existing in real life) that he created 19 years ago and followed up on three years ago. As we’re accustomed to with him, he did it with abundant visual creativity and thematic references, while making two different points in the climax. But despite the fact that everything fits together in the first point and becomes conspiratorial in the right way, as well as original and bold when considering the viewer’s expectations, I’m not quite sure I wanted it that way. Not to mention the second point, which simply should not be there at all, because the movie absolutely doesn’t build up to it. (20/01/2019)

M. Night Shyamalan goes back to his roots and disappoints badly. In everything. Glass is a film that will probably make you a little embarrassed for the filmmaker himself. It looks televisual, but above all it's all incredibly stupid and self-aware at the same time. The twists and turns are absurd, the pacing is awfully slow and any attempts at philosophising are inhumanly off, and the decent Bruce Willis and James McAvoy can't pull it up to average. Watching Glass is like watching M. Night Shyamalan destroy his own legacy for two hours. And it's not a pretty sight. (16/01/2019)