Glass

     Glass is directed by M. Night Shyamalan (Sixth Sense) and stars James McAvoy (X-Men: First Class), Bruce Willis (Die Hard), and Samuel L. Jackson (The Incredibles). It is the culmination of a trilogy started by Unbreakable and followed by Split. It tells the story of David Dunn locating Kevin Wendell Crumb, only to be captured by a governmental agency.

     Unbreakable is a movie I saw about seven years ago, thought it was pretty good, but did not think about it much until the release of Split two years ago. The reveal at the end that Kevin Wendell Crumb was part of a larger universe left me eagerly awaiting the continued stories of these characters. And the first trailers for Glass were extremely promising.

     The best part of the movie is the character played by McAvoy known as ‘The Horde’. His character from Split Is very much in the center of Glass and is better than ever. He effortlessly floats between characters, embodying each one in his own unique way. Sarah Paulsen (Bird Box) is also pretty good in her role as a shadowy government agent, but the culmination of her story was deeply unsatisfying.

     Perhaps the most frustrating part of Glass is the lack of titular character Elijah Price played by Samuel L. Jackson who reprises his villainous role from Unbreakable. There is very little arc for his character, and I left the movie knowing just about as much about him as I did before walking in. Jackson does what he can with the role, however little that may be.

     The cinematography is quite interesting, with a lot of care being put into the smallest details. Each character is given a specific color that helps each scene pop, especially when they are all on screen together. The action sequences are also well done, if tonally inconsistent. Shyamalan appears to not be as interested in these sequences but knows that they are what the audience is expecting.

     The scale of the movie is much smaller than I was expecting, and less than what it appeared to be through the advertising. Whereas I thought the mental institution would be a stop on the way to a much larger story, it instead is where the majority of the film takes place. While I thought this could be an interesting plot point in a larger story, I do not feel as though it carried enough weight to have the heft of the movie placed on its shoulders.

     At the end of the day, Glass is bolstered by a great lead performance by McAvoy and some visually interesting ideas but is hampered by its lack of scale and little actual character development.

When should you see it?

Dollar Theater