Movie Reaction: Glass

Formula: (Split + Unbreakable) * Generic I.P.
 

I'm flummoxed. I really am. I don't know what to say about Glass. You know that feeling when you forget what you are going to say as soon as you are about to talk? That's how I've felt trying to start this Reaction. My response to the movie was somewhere between negative and apathetic, and I have nowhere to go with that. I might as well jump start this by covering the basics.

Glass is the third movie in an unlikely M. Night Shaymalan trilogy. I say unlikely, because no one saw Split a couple years ago thinking it was part of a shared universe. It took a post-credits sequence for that. In Glass, David Dunn (Bruce Willis from Unbreakable) has become a well-known but unidentified vigilante around Philadelphia. James McAvoy still plays the man with multiple personalities (I'm calling him Kevin) from Split who kidnaps young girls. David has a run in with Kevin. Both men are caught and put in a mental hospital; the same one that Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) has been in for several years. Sarah Paulson plays a doctor who is treating them for their delusions of grandeur (i.e. thinking that they are comic book heroes or villains). Elijah sees this as an opportunity to show the world their gifts and teams with Kevin to escape. David tries to convince Paulson's Dr. Ellie Staple that he needs to be freed so he can stop them.

At a certain point, a movie series starts playing only to its fans. If you aren't a fan, then there is no investment to reward. When I saw the conclusion to the Maze Runner series last year, it meant nothing to me, because I didn't care about the characters and didn't really remember the story. The same thing with the Twilight movies. Then again, I'm deeply invested in Star Wars and every last beat of that means something to me in a way it wouldn't for people who watch those movies more casually. That's a lot of my issue with Glass. I simply don't care about this series. Unbreakable was good. I saw it once 15 years ago and haven't really thought about it since. While I admired McAvoy's commitment, I thought Split was pretty weak. So, getting to Glass, I don't really care much about the comic book mythology or the larger world of it. I don't remember Casey Cooke's (Anya Taylor-Joy) relationship with Kevin. I couldn't overcome how little I cared going in. So, that didn't help matters.

And nothing in the movie won me over either. The story relies a lot on convenience. Apparently, this secure facility has about three employees total at night and virtually no failsafes. At one point, a character who is supposed to be cautious and patient risks getting caught simply because he assumes a guard is going to be late, which is sloppy planning for a mastermind. It even feels contrived how they get the three men in the same mental hospital or considering the security measures to keep them in place.

The budget for the movie was only about a quarter as much as even a low-tier Marvel/DC movie and it shows. Shaymalan shoots around showing actual fighting. He either puts the camera on the other side of a wall or shows it as grainy security footage from a distance. The movie promises larger set pieces and tries to use those as a misdirect. The climactic showdown is underwhelming. It's the kind of thing where the movie has 8 cops show up when you'd expect 20. There are all sorts of cut corners like that. This serves as a good reminder that making a movie on a budget isn't a skill. It's a necessity. The skill is making a movie on a budget that doesn't feel like it's made on a budget. I felt the limitations of this movie. It's a small movie, and I don't think that's what Shaymalan was going for.

The acting is...fine, I guess. McAvoy attacks his role with gusto. I'm still not convinced that it's a compelling character though, and it still makes me laugh more than it should. Willis and Jackson just look old. It's a shame they didn't make this back in 2003 when I didn't worry if Willis needed to take a baby aspirin before getting in that fight. And there's weird casting like Charlayne Woodard playing Samuel L. Jackson's mother. She is 5 years younger than him. And it's not like they try to make either look older or younger.

Glass isn't a sequel I needed or really wanted. It's formed from a cobbled together mythology that reads like the generic store brand of something more engaging. I didn't hate the movie. I felt nothing watching it. I kind of want to hate it, just because that would give me a direction to go with it. It's well enough made. Shaymalan is good at what he does. The actors put in enough effort. I'm sure if the first two movies made more of an impression on me, I'd like this a little more. I do hope this is the end of the series, even though I'd like a more satisfying ending.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend