Glass

I understand where the director was going with all of this. Unfortunately, I don’t really get how he filmed it. While  Unbreakable is a fundamental movie of American cinema in my eyes, and Split set out to be the same, Glass connected the stories of all participants in a way that was not only unnecessary but it also spoiled my impression of the two previous films, which ended perfectly… and should have remained that way. But M. Night Shyamalan turned his superheroes into such strange figures that even though I still liked James McAvoy’s unrestrained acting, the movie as a whole made me really unhappy. It felt like a complete mess. But it’s still Shyamalan, so if you can endure the boring madhouse-like middle of the move, the finale can be quite intriguing from a screenwriting perspective. You certainly have to give him that. (06/14/2019)

McAvoy and Willis are outstanding, as they finally have some good roles after a long time. Samuel L. Jackson doesn't take any chances, but he is surprisingly pushed into the background. Glass picks up nicely where we left off twenty years ago. Yes, times have changed since Unbreakable and maybe we don’t need another movie like that. But still it makes for a pleasant and down-to-earth contrast to today’s comic-book blockbusters. It works as it should, but it just lacks anything shocking after all of the X-Men movies. Even so, Shy offers solid and quite surprising twists. This had to have been an unpleasant surprise for those who have only seen Split, but not Unbreakable. They wouldn't be able to make heads or tails out of it. (01/20/2019)

Mr. Shyamalan put a lot effort into this one. He works consistently with the dramatic potential of the three main characters and their deepening interactions, which bring them closer to one another in the same house. The story escalates and entertains by exploring and uncovering the essence of the brilliant theme (the magical idea of comic book heroes existing in real life) that he created 19 years ago and followed up on three years ago. As we’re accustomed to with him, he did it with abundant visual creativity and thematic references, while making two different points in the climax. But despite the fact that everything fits together in the first point and becomes conspiratorial in the right way, as well as original and bold when considering the viewer’s expectations, I’m not quite sure I wanted it that way. Not to mention the second point, which simply should not be there at all, because the movie absolutely doesn’t build up to it. (01/20/2019)

With the themes, the involvement of the three, Paulson's role in the action, and the plot arc (across the episodes as a whole, not just this one), this is undeniably an interesting yet logical culmination of the trilogy, and one that works particularly well on a meta level, as since Unbreakable, we are now in the "cinematic age of the superhero". That's exactly how it works in the fist hour, and with that in mind, it goes down some interesting paths where Shyamalan isn't afraid to toy with expectations. The problem, and quite a major one, is the second half, when it doesn't so much shift in place as shuffle backwards on a square inch. It unfolds hastily in scenes where you always know safely in advance what is going to happen and how it is going to happen and where it is going, so that sometimes you wait for tens of minutes before it finally happens and then it is explained to you at length. Even the potentially powerful "whispering to the trio" scenes are stripped down and not for a moment convincing. This is doubly disappointing, because the second half pretends "as if the whispering worked and made the people in question angry", which no one, thanks to the unconvincing delivery, can believe for a second. On paper, it all might have made sense to Shyamalan and seemed on the level of Unbreakable, but the execution stalls, and despite a solid pacing and a supportive overall plane, the crappy second half sinks it cruelly. It's not bad, it's not unintentionally funny, it's just very good at first before it becomes very boring. (02/07/2021)

The biggest flop of the year? Quite possibly. I saw the film in the cinema two weeks ago and it smoked out of my head so quickly that I'm only writing about it now, and that doesn't bode damn well. I don't know if Shyamalan has family problems, is drowning in debt or has turned to drugs because after The Visit and Split it looked like he was back to where we wanted him to be, but now he's plummeting down again and has made perhaps the most boring film I've ever seen in the cinema. The acting aces did not please at all. James McAvoy overacts horribly and is not interesting at all, Bruce Willis is a clear candidate to the Golden Raspberry and Samuel L. Jackson unfortunately didn't say much. The film offers almost nothing. It's not action, horror, thriller, funny or suspenseful. It fits the drama, but it's properly tedious, visually unappealing and strangely overwrought at the end. A strange, uninteresting and unentertaining film and I hate that wholeheartedly. I felt like I went to a restaurant and ordered a beef steak medium well with mushrooms, asparagus and chips and ended up getting a steak well done with roast potatoes, carrots and salad. This is not how I imagined my first cinema visit this year. 30% (02/08/2019)