M. Night Shyamalan appears to have officially emerged from his mid-career funk. After the horrible dreck of "Lady In the Water" and "The Happening", he moved to smaller budget films and appeared to regain his footing with 2017's 'Split".
GLASS is the third film in the "Unbreakable" trilogy. While it doesn't quite hold up to the original "Unbreakable" almost 20 years ago, its a strong entry in the series.
James McAvoy (XMEN) is terrific in his second film as all the fascinating personalities living inside Kevin Wendall Crumb. 'Split" introduced us to Crumb and his shape shifting powers including English women, a 9 year old hooligan and a Beast more animal than human.
As the film opens, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) continues his superhero ways as defender of victims and punisher of the evil. With the help of his son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark, very good in the same role he stared 19 years ago) they seem to be honing in on Crumb.
In the middle of trying to capture him, they are both captured by police and placed in one of those massive Mental Institutions that look like country estates, but are thankfully manned by ignorant staff so all sorts of tom foolery can take place.
As the previews revealed, Crumb and Dunn are not alone in the institution. It's also the home of infamous creator of superheroes Mr. Glass, played to perfection by the returning Samuel L. Jackson.
Psychiatrist Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) has all the men in one place, determined to prove that they are NOT superheroes in anyway.
Will she succeed?
Will our heroes on both sides of good and bad escape and release havoc?
Shyamalan has a lot of story up his sleeve here. He's constantly teasing the story to go in expected directions and then taking left turns.
He's got three strong actors playing some of the best characters he's ever written. He plays with time in interesting ways, taking us back to moments in the other films that fully inform this tale.
His use of color within the movie is really interesting, with purple, green and yellow defining the different characters in very interesting ways.
I really enjoyed McAvoy, Willis and Jackson riffing off each other like a legendary band that's played together for years. There are some nice surprises, some decent tension and a strong resolution that I didn't see coming.
Composer West Dylan Thordson creates some killer moods with his insidious score that references James Newton Howard's "Unbreakable" score in all the right ways.
I felt a little disappointed when I realized the climax was not going to take place in the spot or in the style the characters had teased, but in the final, long camera pullback, it does seem like the right choice to close out the trilogy.
GLASS is a clever thriller with enough mythos to satisfy comics fans and enough action to content thriller fans. After "Unbreakable" it's the second best entry in the trilogy for me and gets a solid A-.
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