Last night I finally caught up with M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass movie. The sequel to the much-loved cult favorite movie Unbreakable. And to start off, as the headline states, this movie was indeed unfairly judged and reviewed by critics and is in fact, a one of kind comic book movie.
A brief review of M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable Sequel ‘Glass’. Warning: Article may contain minor spoilers to the movie.
Glass isn’t the typical comic book movie that was made for the masses. It certainly isn’t a superhero movie that would interest a younger audience like Marvel and DC have succeeded. But it’s a sequel made just for the fans that followed this shared cinematic universe and have patiently waited to see the confrontation between Mr.Glass, The Beast and David Dunn or now known as Overseer in Glass. But the movie is more than just that.
Glass succeeds to an extent at being a well-grounded comic book movie that gives Elijah aka Mr. Glass the purpose he had been seeking in Unbreakable. Glass, in a sense, is an origin movie for Mr. Glass but it is disguised like a “special edition” comic book and expects moviegoers to believe that in the end, there’s much grandeur like what one would expect in a typical Marvel or DC comic book movie. Unfortunately, there’s none of that.
Even the last action sequence between the beast and David Dunn is lackluster and would seem more like a fight between two normal individuals if it wasn’t for the well-timed sound effects and brute physical impacts caused in the environment by the two. But that seems to be what Shyamalan wanted all along. Though these characters are superhuman in nature they aren’t as enhanced as heroes from fictional comics which was established in the earlier movies.
Nonetheless, it certainly goes without saying this movie isn’t for every superhero loving moviegoers. Neither does it succeed at appealing entirely to its targeted audience who’d clearly still choose Unbreakable over Glass. but that doesn’t classify this movie as bad.
The ending of Glass is controversial and is sure to leave fans divided. Mr. Glass gets a well deserving moment but it leaves David Dunn and The Horde/Beast in the dark and the characters just seem to be pawns in Elijah’s master plan to let the world know superheroes and villains exist.
Unlike other comic book movies, Glass does well at bringing together its supporting characters and making their presence important to the plot. In the end, they seem to be the ones holding the baton to the finish line.
Glass’s nearing climax scene did leave me disappointed but in the end, I still exited the theatre with a satisfying experience. Perhaps, An alternate ending may help in changing many fans’ view.
If I’d countdown which would be my most favorite out of this shared cinematic universe, It falls chronologically starting with Unbreakable, Split and GLASS.
The future of comic book movies does not lie only in the hands of studios such as Marvel Studios, Warner Bros. (DCEU) and Sony. But movies such as Shyamalan’s GLASS will play a role in helping this genre grow and be more than just movies based on stories that were already told in the comics.
Few more things about the movie:
The soundtrack lives up to the expectation but loses points for not including David Dunn’s theme from Unbreakable
The cinematography is a treat to the eyes and the use of color palette only makes it better.
There are certain dark & gritty moments that were well executed though this is a PG-13 movie. Perhaps, Shyamalan has an uncut ‘R’ Rated version with an alternate ending? We can only hope.
This shared universe still has potentials to be further explored if Shyamalan set out to do so.
The movie impressively connects the dots to Unbreakable and Split.
