Note: No direct spoilers for Glass, but I’ll be freely talking about Split and Unbreakable.
First, there was Unbreakable. We were introduced to Bruce Willis as David Dunn, the sole survivor of a train crash who discovers he has superhuman strength and an aversion to water. The birth of this identity is orchestrated by Samuel L Jackson’s Mr Glass, a supergenius with abnormally brittle bones who believes he has to have a counterpart out there somewhere.
Then came Split. James McAvoy plays the 24 personalities living inside of Kevin Wendell Crumb, including the malevolent Horde, determined to bring victims to The Beast, the being inside Kevin with inhuman abilities.
Now, it all comes together in Glass.
This is a daunting write up to approach. M Night Shyamalan’s work is always so dense, I don’t even know where to start. When you consider that this movie is 19 years in the making, it’s even more epic. I think it was worth the wait.
Dunn has been tracking Crumb, and is closing in on him. But Sarah Paulson’s newcomer psychiatrist isn’t too far behind. She’s already got Glass, and she’s hoping to complete her collection of these extraordinary beings.
Sitting in the Dolby theater with a good buddy of mine, I was eating up every second. I’ve said before that Shyamalan regained his mojo with The Visit, which continued on thru Split, and is still there for Glass. He truly is the master of suspense with the patience of a saint. Where most directors would give in to temptation to break the tension and the give the audience a taste or a jump scare, he continues building it until there really is nowhere to go. Movie buddy kept grabbing my hand and the two of us were stifling so many screams. The experience was unreal.
So were the characters. Before, we’d only had hints of Glass being a villain. His true intentions were under wraps until the big reveal. Now we got to see him go full baddie. It was enough to make me want him to be the victor.
The other incredible performance, once again, James McAvoy. There are no words to adequately express how impressive his performance is, transition from one character to the next at the drop of a hat. And you always knew which character you were seeing. They were that distinct.
For me (and movie buddy, as much as I can speak for him), this movie was incredible. Sure, I could nitpick some stuff at the end, but there was enough greatness thrown in there, that we were blown away. Even if you take off the last 15 minutes, you’ve got an amazing and suspenseful 2 hours. I think that might be one of the points people are missing. The excuse for Unbreakable was often that the world wasn’t ready for superhero movies. We’re certainly ready for them now, but I don’t see this as a superhero movie. I still see it as a horror/suspense. That’s what Night excels at, and that’s what makes this excellent
Glass – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/