Glass

Well… Given that I was mentally prepared for the worst, I’m not disappointed. In fact, I’m relatively a tiny bit pleasantly surprised that, at least conceptually, it makes some sense. IMHO, it is well though-out. In Glass, Shyalaman explores a well known but slightly different motif of comics films - how it would be in the real world - without the viewer actually anticipating it until de last moment. For the closure of a trilogy, it makes sense overall. Unfortunately, the film is almost impossible to enjoy purely at the level of the viewer, but only after it finishes, if you are able and willing to appreciate its structure. There are several stupid moments that ruin what could be a pleasant experience, along with empty dialogues and inconsistent performances (I like Sarah Paulson, but here she was badly cast). What’s utter nonsense is the character of Taylor-Joy (what she’s forced to do there is unbelievable), as well as the final alliance of some of the characters. (13/02/2019)

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)

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)

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)

This era calls for a strong stance against movies that divide the audience, and rather than beginning to accommodate such cases, it is easier to start laughing at them. Glass,  just like The Sixth Sense was in its time, is a film for patient viewers, but it doesn't suit today's trends too well. M. Night Shyamalan brings back that slow pacing and uniqueness, and while most of the running time promises a new generation of comic books, in the end, it brings the opposite, with an anti-comic-book whose finale kicks even the slightly sympathetic viewer directly in the tenders. With the help of perfectly used flashbacks, I have to admit that I simply wasn't prepared for some points, and although I don't think everything was planned like this twenty years ago, I would believe that what the creator carried in his head for years as a continuation of the Unbreakable relationship between David and Elijah should have looked just like this, and Kevin served as the ideal trigger for it. There is no room for digressions here, so I have to smirk at the complaints about the sequels or spin-offs we are now supposed to expect. They'll never come, and they shouldn't. Everything has been said, to the very last drop. And I'm giving it the highest rating, even though I'm not sure I can ever come back here again, and even though everything inside me was hurting when I left the cinema. (24/01/2019)