Glass – Shattering Expectations

Samuel L Jackson in a superhero film? Naturally.

Glass is a superhero film that begins like any other. Equipped with a cool new nickname, “The Overseer”, Bruce Willis’ David Dunn searches the streets of Philadelphia for villain of Split Kevin Wendell Crumb, AKA the Horde.

With his son guiding him through an earpiece, Dunn is able to locate The Horde and rescue a group of young girls from his new lair. However, both are captured by the authorities and taken to a psychiatric institution – also home to Unbreakable villain Elijah Price, once again played by Samuel L Jackson, who for my money was the best part of this film.

While Dunn, Price, and Crumb all share about equal screentime, all three are underutilized at various points in the film. Bruce Willis is almost completely absent from the second act, which really messes with the pacing of the story.

Glass acts as a good sequel to Unbreakable, expanding on many of the themes of destiny and purpose introduced there. I thought it was less of a good sequel to Split, as Crumb feels much less threatening and Anya Taylor Joy’s Casey Cooke loses a lot of her depth from her first outing.

I will praise the cinematography, which I thought was top-notch. The camerawork helped draw you into the world and helped advance the story visually, which is something a lot of modern superhero films have trouble with.

Not to be a hater, but the movie really falls apart in act three. The character motivations start to lose believability and the writing begins to falter. I won’t spoil the ending, but if the same result was achieved a little differently, this would have been a lot more powerful and emotional and would have tied the film together a lot better than what we got.

One of the big themes throughout the film is believing in yourself, even if no one else will. One of the characters, Dr. Ellie Staple, played by Sarah Paulson, devotes most of her time in the film convincing Crumb, Dunn, and Price that they do not have superpowers and instead are suffering from delusions of grandeur. These characters either believing her, or refusing to, was a fascinating character study and one of my favorite parts of the film. Imagine if Batman sat down with a psychologist and talked about his childhood trauma. I think that’d be fascinating.

This film was a huge swing by Shyamalan. He self-financed it, as he had with The Visit and Split. Luckily, it made its budget back many times over and proved to be a worthy investment.

Shyamalan Rankings:

A lot of people online seemed to hate this one. I disagree, there was a lot of good here; although I did not love it.

1. Signs
2. The Sixth Sense
3. Unbreakable
4. The Village
5. The Visit
6. Split
7. Wide Awake
8. Glass
9. The Happening
10. Lady in the Water
11. After Earth
12. Praying With Anger
13. The Last Airbender

Only two Shyamalan films to go! Next week, I’ll cover his 2021 film Old.