Movie Review: Glass (2019)

Summary: Security guard David Dunn uses his supernatural abilities to track Kevin Wendell Crumb, a disturbed man who has twenty-four personalities.

You can read my Split Review and my Spoiler Talk. I did watch Unbreakable finally and I don’t think I’ll review it, at least not right now.

Pros:

Cast and Characters. 

• Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price / Mr. Glass. He is an intelligent comic book theorist with Type I osteogenesis imperfecta, who was institutionalized after David Dunn discovered his crimes. He spends a lot of this movie silent, in a state where he doesn’t seem to be able to do anything other than stare into the distance. He appears very unassuming and around the end, his intentions and plans start to come to fruition, and he proves he’s still the smartest one. SLJ is great, I like how Mr. Glass is basically a fanboy who really lost his mind. It’s something we’ve seen before but he takes it to the extreme, especially once we find out just how far he’s gone. SLJ plays intimidating and crazy well.

• James McAvoy as Kevin Wendell Crumb / The Horde. My favorite character in this movie. He is twenty-seven years old and a former Philadelphia Zoo employee with 23 different personalities whose body chemistry changes with each personality, culminating in a 24th personality known as “The Beast”, a savage superhuman cannibal whose abilities include wall-crawling, enhanced strength, speed, durability, and agility. I love the fact that we got to see many more personalities in this compared to Split but he plays them all so well and the fluidity of how he goes into each one. Of course, we see Hedwig, Dennis, Patricia and Barry again and they’re all still great. I mean, Hedwig is a character lol. I love James McAvoy. He’s great. I LOVE HIM and I’m glad he’s had like three movies this year, two of them were not that great but he’s always great in them. The way he can just go through different alters and it’s clear that they are different people, not to mention him as The Beast, it’s just so impressive and I honestly want to see an origin story of him. Not “The Beast” as that is what Split is but of his life with the others and McAvoy can play those too since he’s supposed to be 27 and McAvoy is not lol. But I want more of him. He’s the only reason why I teared up a little at the end.

• Bruce Willis as David Dunn / The Overseer. He is a superhuman vigilante with enhanced strength and durability, as well as the ability to see the crimes people have committed by touching them. Dunn lives a quiet life, but he still goes out to play hero with his son as his “man in the chair” and it’s clear they’ve been doing this for years. Dunn is the strong silent type and it’s because of him that he and The Horde get caught. Dunn tries to save some kidnapped girls and he and The Beast end up having a nice fight. Throughout the movie, he’s almost a nonfactor until the end and he gets to let go since he has an opponent that he doesn’t have to hold back from. I’ve always enjoyed Bruce Willis and he’s fine, the movie doesn’t focus a lot on him but when it does, he’s good.

• Sarah Paulson as Dr. Ellie Staple. She is a psychiatrist who specializes in delusions of grandeur and it’s her mission to prove Dunn, Price and Kevin aren’t superhumans and she basically uses words to mess with them. I mean, she’s good at her job because they do start to doubt who they are and what they can do. I quite liked how she was able to really confuse Patricia who holds The Horde down lol. I mean, she’s a psychiatrist so whenever we see her, she’s talking lol. Sarah Paulson is a good actress, I haven’t seen her in a ton of things but everything I have seen with her, I think she’s dynamic and here her character isn’t this big personality and you never know what she might say to really get into their heads. I really like the ending for her character, it allows the audience to understand her more.

• Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke. She is a 17-year-old girl with a history of abuse who was kidnapped by one of Kevin’s identities as a potential sacrifice to “The Beast” but managed to survive. After Kevin gets taken to the hospital, she comes to see him and I find her role interesting in this because she cares for Kevin, even though he was part of a traumatic experience for her. I mean, I know at the end of the day, it wasn’t Kevin, but it was still his body… I don’t know, I liked that she was able to pull Kevin to the light and all that, but I found it an interesting connection. ATJ is great, very compelling to watch.

• Spencer Treat Clark as Joseph Dunn. David’s son who has believed in his father’s abilities since he was a child and sees him as a real-life superhero. I think it’s great they got the same actor to play his son and I loved his unshakable belief in his dad even when his dad started to doubt it himself.

Story Connections. When I saw Split, I loved it even before I learned of the connection to Unbreakable which I hadn’t seen at that point. I was aware of that movie and what it was essentially about, but I didn’t know the details so the stinger at the end was cool. I like how Mr. Glass is still proving he’s the smartest in the room and that he literally thinks of everything even when others think they bested him. Nice try lol. I like the fact that you have “The Beast” and the only person who can really handle him is Dunn because of his ability and The Horde feels threatened, it’s an interesting dynamic. Shyamalan has said he’s not interested in making more movies after this one but the shared universe he created is interesting and I would be interested in case he did.

The Ideas. I like what the movie was trying to do in terms of the questions being asked. What if everything you believe about yourself being “super” is in your head. I think that’s a great question and a good way to take a deeper look at people who superhuman.

The Climax. The movie is basically building to this moment, as it should, and while I’ll talk about it a little in my cons, I think it was overall enjoyable to watch. Mr. Glass set things in motion and now he, along with the audience gets to sit back and enjoy The Beast and Dunn’s collision. It was fun to watch, and I was really into seeing everyone get to use their powers, or fully embrace them and just clash. Plus, it’s around this time that we just get so much information and revelations and it’s really cool. James McAvoy running across that grass like an animal is literally my favorite thing.

I was waiting for that the entire movie lol.

Cons:

Underwhelming. Boy this movie ends in such a lackluster way. I mean, I get it, the entire movie was building up to a moment and I know what it means, what it was supposed to be like, at least in my mind and I don’t think it provides the conclusion these movies deserve. It’s very underwhelming and I was actually upset. Not like upset like “dang man that’s sad” it was sad, and I did tear up a little bit but mostly because REALLY???? These characters are interesting and don’t get me wrong, it’s been 19 years since we’ve seen Dunn and Glass, but you then bring in such an interesting character in Kevin and then you do this? Meh. I was not happy with this ending. All that build up for that. It’s like waiting for a rocket to launch and then the fuse goes out right before takeoff. Lame. These characters deserved much better.

More Interactions. We needed more interactions between the main three characters. In the beginning, we have an interaction with The Beast and Dunn and then that’s really it. They never really interact again, even when all three of them are in the same room. Dunn and Glass never talk until the last 30 minutes… I mean, come on. Most people are banking on something going on with these three and Dunn spends most of the movie isolated and while Kevin is interesting because of his many alters, it would have been nice to see Patricia or even Hedwig interact with Dunn. They talked about him enough. Missed opportunities! I don’t want to see them interact with the orderlies in the hospital, I want to see them talk and interact with each other!

Nothing is Happening. This movie feels like a series of things just happening, but nothing is actually happening. There are moments where our main three are speaking with Dr. Staples and that’s where most of the things seem to happen. She’s trying to get them to think about themselves in a different way and it’s clever. Then it’s just a lot of watching people and talking. Don’t get me wrong, I particularly was interested in the moments with Kevin and his alters but it was like the moving was just very slowly moving towards something and it picked up only to be shot down so fast.

Overall, I enjoyed Glass for the most part. I thought the acting was great with James McAvoy as the standout because his role is so complicated, dynamic and interesting that he really steals the show when he’s on screen, which is great because I love him. Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis are also great to see on screen. I really like the idea of the film and what it was trying to accomplish because it’s a different look at the superhero genre and the climax was entertaining. I think this movie has a problem with keeping the momentum going because it feels like nothing is happening and when the big climax happens, you get into it but then the payoff is really underwhelming, and it feels like a very lackluster ending to an interesting trilogy. Besides, there should have been way more interactions between our main three actors, and it was such a missed opportunity to not have them be more involved with each other. That’s where the interesting stuff happens. I feel like there was a lot of things cut out that would have helped but I also watched the deleted scenes in the DVD and those deleted scenes added nothing lol. So, I’m like well dang lol. Watch this one for the familiar characters and the great performances.

Rating: 2.9 out of 5 stars.

Have you seen Glass? What are your thoughts on the film? Let me know in the comments below!

Which out of the Unbreakable trilogy is your favorite? Unbreakable, Split, or Glass?

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