Glass Review

It is the month of January and it is the dumping ground of films either gestating for too long to make a profit or be a quality film.  That lies at the heart of one of the few big releases to open 2019 of films with the sequel to what is called M. Night Shyamalan’s comic book trilogy called Glass, with him at the directing and writing helm.  This was reworked and structured from the original film’s script Unbreakable that has been long in the work for decades, especially as a good amount of films have not panned out for him.  Much of the cast has returned to this story, older and from Split, as well as serving as the penultimate climax of this overarching story of grounded superheroes and villains.  Does it come together as a whole and deliver where it counts, or does it falter and trip on the most fundamental elements that make for a satisfying climax for a trilogy of films?  Let’s check into the hospital and examine the story behind these patients with extraordinary abilities. 

We pick up 3 weeks after Split, where Kevin Wendell Crumb AKA The Beast (James McAvory) has been on a killing spree of the impure, while Casey (Ann Taylor-Joy) has made her life better by locking up her uncle for sexually molesting and abusing her as well as living in a foster home.  Meanwhile, David Dunn AKA The Overseer (Bruce Willis) is a vigilante hero protecting the innocent and punishing the criminals anywhere in Philadelphia while running a home security store with his son Joey (a grown up Spencer Treat Clark), who happens to be his operator and partner in the field.  Both hero and villain collide over a kidnapping that occurs with a cheerleading squad and they come to blows before an unknown police force comes in and subdues both for transport to the Eastwood Psychiatric Hospital in the outskirts of the city.  They are taken into rooms that mirror that of a comic book style holding prison for the extraordinary.  The one to bring them in for evaluation and treatment is a Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), looking to convince them that their beliefs in superheroes and villains are delusional and in their own minds.

This leads to a series of events that have the characters close to them, try to understand their captivity and get them released but one person happens to be in this hospital.  That would be the criminal mastermind and terrorist murderer Elijah AKA Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), kept under heavy sedation and surveillance for any signs of his evil genius being used to escape or harm others.  Dr. Staple is given 3 days to treat them and convince them that their powers are not real, when it has proven to be otherwise countless times in the previous cases and events.  Little do they know, Mr. Glass misdirects everyone of his helplessness and hatches a plan to prove to the whole world that the stories of comic books are real and exist, no matter the cost.  It becomes a mind-bending cat and mouse game of manipulation and deconstructing the mythos of comic books and their archetypes among three people that may very well reshape the world with what they are capable of.

For starters, the story has a strong and effective first act that gets us back into this world seamlessly and really feel the meaningful connections of this film with the previous outings with David and Kevin.  What makes the story interesting and promising to explore is the attention to detail towards continuity of the characters’ development.  This is also supplemented by mostly great performances from most of the cast with Glass and Beast being the standouts of the cast rightfully so.  While the first action beat is relatively simple, it is refreshingly grounded and fits with the realistic tone of the story perfectly.  There are times when the writing is sharp and explores the nature of comic books in a timely matter to today’s landscape of stories of superheroes and villains.  Despite the few bright, inspired moments of storytelling, it does not come together unfortunately, with the introduction of the new setting and character whose purpose is shrouded in mystery. 

After a pretty tense and engaging opening, the characters get captured and taken to a psych ward of a hospital for much of the story.  What it transforms into, is where people will either go with the flow or absolutely dislike it, is a slow and methodical deconstructive drama/examination of the mythos and archetypes of comic book in conjunction with its grounded, real characters.  That is what you see for at least an hour and a half, where you feel those plodding moments of circular conversation leading back to the same point of these stories following the template of what you expect.  The big showdown, good vs. evil, gods among humans, and the necessity of balance mainly discussed and spoken instead of shown, due in part to its limited resources and scope for the film (reported budget being $20 million, explains the issues with the finale).  Based around the vibe and energy of the sold-out crowd of two screenings for the film, it seems like too much time was spent analyzing the characters and their powers but never truly giving them the chance to develop visually but through the excessive amounts of exposition and world building that is limited to this one location.  Eventually, it picks up in the climax and that is where it unfortunately falls apart.

The breakout/final battle is appropriately grounded and has weight to it at first but then, the restrictive nature of the budget and small-scale approach to the story is where the issues crop in.  Most of the cast only become relevant by the last act and are mostly just small appearances that factor into one specific character development to the leads. There is so much time spent building up to a clear and obvious climax that it is hard to shake this questionable feeling that the finale was truncated to have every major climatic closure occur at just one location.  It results in not only a very disappointing closure to the leads but also throws in a twist that diminishes the emotional journey and development of the previous two films fatally, that it derails and muddles the point of its story questionably.  There is a sense of repurposing and restructuring a script from 20 years ago into the present culture that feels like some of its core elements in plotting and thematic storytelling are not quite reflective of the explosively popular, larger than life landscape of the superhero genre today.  This point lies at the overall issue that needs to be addressed and to clarify why this film ultimately fails to subvert and provide a different spin on the formula and subgenre that it goes to great lengths to criticize and explore throughout the film.

The reason for the lengthy exploration of the narrative quality is in regards to how much Shyamalan ultimately squanders the promising setups and wonderful character development/arcs of the previous films, for a new storyline that does not provide new insight to the superhero mythos and structural troupes as well as being more self-aware of its themes of balance and conformity to structure of an established way of creating stories in this genre.  The previous two films downplayed it effectively and only made it important to the growth of a character’s journey but here it plays more to the status quota of comic book stories rather than in junction with the characters’ actions themselves.  That is why Unbreakable and Split worked so well while Glass falls flat emotionally and as a satisfying end to this contained outing for the characters.  Ultimately, it starts off on a good note, stumbles in the middle, and falls face first with its sloppy yet truncated finale that ends on a questionably low-fi note with its conclusive moments for each character.

Let’s get right into the cast, starting with the leads themselves before we get into the supporting cast.  Bruce Willis reprises his role of David Dunn but with a gruff yet accepting outlook of his choice to be a vigilante hero providing one of his better performances in some time but still not quite giving his all into the performance at times, mostly for the subdued, emotional moments.  Samuel L. Jackson fits right back into the character of Mr. Glass with confidence and gleeful energy to finally be a baddie worthy of the most classic of villains, while showing how remarkable he is given material that plays to his strengths.  James McAvory as Kevin is still providing his most versatile and complex performance yet again, as well as providing some of the most genuine humorous moments of the film as well as displaying his personalities with reliably quality effort from the actor as usual.  Sarah Paulson plays Dr. Staple and she is perfectly fine as the compassionate yet mysterious psychologist that cares for the well being of these individuals to a degree, providing a commendable performance despite the sharp left writing turn for her character in the last act that brings to question her overall motivation and actions throughout the film.  Those are the characters we spend the most time with, while the supporting cast are also played well by older and upcoming actors/actresses.

It is both comforting and worth compliment how great it was to see many of the familiar actors/characters from previous films return to provide capable performances despite their unfortunately shorten time in the film. Ann Taylor-Joy gives a solid performance by adding to the strangely intimate chemistry between Kevin and Casey as well as being reliably good with the limited material and role for her.  The same goes for Spencer Treat Clark as a grown-up Joey Dunn with the familiar yet intuitive chemistry still felt between Willis and him, despite only being there to further the point of the deconstruction of comic books as well as some comic moments.  Lastly, we have Charlayne Woodard as Elijah’s mother Mrs. Price, and while there is a questionable work done on her makeup and hair to age her up appropriately, she provides some credibility to continuity and emotional connection to one of the principal characters.  The cast is a good mix of fantastic standouts, reliably good ones, and hokey awkward ones that are made sillier by the inconsistent dialogue at work here.

This brings us to the technical aspects of the film, starting with the cinematography and editing for Glass.  This was shot and shaped by Mike Gioulakis (It Follows, Split, etc.) as well as edited by two people named Luke Ciarrocchi (previous collaborator on the Blumhouse produced Shyamalan films) and Blu Murray (recently worked on many of Eastwood’s films) maintaining a consistent look and rhythm to the previous films.  It looks very much in line with the previous entries mainly in a positive way, as well as flowing roughly the same in line with a character-based drama than a traditional action/adventure film.  There are awkward moments of editing that call into attention the digital look of the film in contrast to the two deleted scenes from Unbreakable featured here using actual film stocks that are rich if grainy in details, as well as the drastic shifts of tone and pacing that occurs in each act, resulting in a film that moves both slowly and fast at inconsistent moments with its story.  While the film is still shot well with a great use of composition in the wide shots, the close ups and action beats always felt off and jarringly utilized as well as some wonky shots especially near the end (a good example is a dolly shot that was clearly not maneuvered correctly, resulting in a shaky shot and those issues are present throughout that make the film even more evident of its lower tier budget). 

The art/costume design is inspired at times but also very limited by the resources and scope of the direction of the production in general.  There is a great use of locations throughout the film, especially with the setting of Philadelphia and the specialized wings for the lead characters in the Hospital.  You can clearly tell they really used the locations of the scenes effectively, despite ultimately set in the hospital for the majority of the story.  As for the costumes done by Paco Delgado, they are distinctive and striking as well as suiting the identities of the characters extremely well (the Overseer’s green jacket, Beast’s yellow hospital pants, and Glass’ classy purple suit).  On an artistic, creative side, it is put together rather well and maintain a sense of continuity to the look and style of the previous films.

The last aspect to explore is the sound design/original score by West Dylan Thordson, returning from his work on Split.  It is one of the better and meaty sound mixes in 2019 so far, the impact of the powers of the characters as well as the more brutal moments hit just right to work for the scenes.  As for the score, it combines a few of the iconic themes from James Newton Howard’s work on Unbreakable particularly Dunn’s musical cues with his own work with Crumb’s theme along with new arrangements to fit with this joining of characters.  The music works effectively for its quieter, subtle moments of tension and creating an enclosed atmosphere for most of the film as well as recognizing the characters through their musical cues.  While it is not quite a compelling score on its own, it works with the visuals greatly in craft the familiar sounds and visual style of this trilogy of films along with a well-crafted sound design as well.

Despite the numerous quality aspects of the film as well as the strong and capable performances from most of the cast, they are ultimately let down by a long gestating, antiquated script that explores a different side of deconstructing comic books but does not quite stick the landing by further convoluting a compelling, straightforward character drama/thriller that happened to have elements of comic book heroics and villainy injected into those stories.  The themes of balancing the normal with the extraordinary, mind games of reality with fiction of comic books, as well as a conclusion to this storyline from 19 years ago are unique and worthy of exploring in film but the execution leaves a lot to be desired and falls flat in what it tries to convey in a time when Superhero/comic book films are not afraid to go into strange, “cosmic” places with the characters and narrative in fun yet dramatically compelling ways.  It comes down to Shyamalan having to rely so much on differentiating yet adhering to the conventions we have come to know, love, and hate with comic book adaptations and cinematic takes that he falls short from being limited yet too narrow with his endgame for this outing.

Score: *** out of *****

Glass is the long-awaited sequel/crossover finale of a story arc that started 19 years ago and has finally reached its penultimate conclusion.  That conclusion is not quite as exciting as many would hope and surprisingly low-fi, anticlimactic as a result, despite the committed and generally quality performances from most of the cast that truly elevate the muddled mess of the script at times as well as some inspired, creative artistry at work with the cinematography (despite the oddly placed and wonky shots used) and the production designs in general for the locations and costumes.  However, what works against it is ironically why the first two films work incredibly well and that is the relatively small, narrow scale of the story that wanted to end on a larger, higher note clearly felt by the intention in the creation and shooting of this film.  This is more of a simmering hospital character drama that feels awkward ironically when it has to deconstruct yet adhere to the comic book film formula strangely enough.  While recognition and praises is deserved for the technical qualities of the film as well as the performances in general, much of the critical issues with its bloated and at times self-serving script/story along with the lowered stakes of the climax and ultimate end point landing flat by deflating and diminishing the strength of quality in the previous films, creates a muddled yet disappointing denouement for what was once a trendsetter and influential to the direction studios would eventually take with adapting the more notable comic book series onto the big screen.