M. Night Shyamalan continues his unbreakable 'franchise' with the third and final installment, 'Glass'. Starring Bruce Willis as David Dunn, James McAvoy as the horde and Samuel Jackson reprising his role as Elijah price aka Mr. Glass. When we all came to know that the events of Split took place in the same universe as Unbreakable, the internet went crazy and I must say, Glass lives up to its hype and is definitely worthy of being in the same universe. For all those who are not aware, Glass (2019) belongs in the same universe as Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2017) so before watching Glass check out Unbreakable and Split to fully understand Glass.
When unbreakable came out back in 2000, I'm not sure how well it was received, feels like maybe it was what ahead of its time. The entire series is a completely different take on a comic book movie without exactly fitting into a comic book movie genre. This is a series about the possibility of the existence of comic book characters in the real world and I think maybe if Unbreakable had come out maybe in 2010 after we got to see some important movies like the X-Men, Spiderman trilogy, the Dark Knight trilogy and our introduction to the MCU this movie might have done a bit better than it did in 2000. In a way, Shyamalan is awesome to have done this way before comic book movies were cool.
'Glass' was basically a movie where Elijah Price tries to make his dream a reality. He wants the world to know that superheroes exist in the real world and is ready to go through anything to prove his point. In some ways, he does stuff very similar to Nick Fury, I really don't see a connection between him and Sam Jackson. Mr. Glass is trying to create a conflict between Dunn and the beast in front of an audience so that the world would finally believe that superheroes exist as he tried to do in Unbreakable only this time he's trying to team up with the beast/ horde. So here, he's trying to be the mastermind behind all these events and his actions speak for him. He really doesn't have much to do in the first half but he does some really cool stuff in the second half.
Talking about performances, McAvoy steals the show here. However awesome Unbreakable was, we really needed a lot of patience sitting through such long hours of exposition, Bruce Willis walking around his hoodie and stuff, the one thing that was lacking there was some comic relief. McAvoy did a great job in Split and he's even better in this. A character suffering from a multiple personality disorder with 23 characters trying to steal the light, can't imagine how he made that look so cool for a second time. The transitions between the characters were amazing and there were so many long shots where he changed between 2-3 characters and only McAvoy could have pulled it off. He brings an element of horror, comedy, humanity, love, and terror. I felt like the least he deserved after his performance in Split was an Oscar nomination but I'm convinced that he's going to be ignored again because the Academy never truly honors great talent, if it had Will Smith, Christopher Nolan and Bradley Cooper would have started winning Oscars instead of people's hearts and McAvoy will be joining that list very soon. McAvoy's performance alone is enough reason for anyone to rewatch this again and in many ways makes it better than its predecessors. Some really nice character development for the horde and the way his past connects with Elijah and Dunn really makes you wonder if these three were destined to meet each other. Loved his origin, loved his performance and without any doubts, McAvoy was easily the best part of Glass and the entire series if you ask me.
The second best performance comes from Samuel Jackson as Mr. Glass. Definitely the wittiest of all, Mr. Glass is trying everything in his power to make Dunn and the Horde go up against each other. But his real intentions are revealed towards the very end. His build-up was kind of boring if you ask me, it took way too long for us to know that he was actually doing something worthwhile, mostly he just sat around in a wheelchair staring aimlessly at the camera, maybe Shyamalan was trying to add some mystery element with that but for me it was more boring than mysterious. Overall, I loved Mr. Glass in the second half and admire his motivations right from Unbreakable but he gets to shine very late, maybe they should have named this movie 'The Horde' instead of 'Glass'.
David Dunn was just brooding around in his superhero hoodie trying to save the day but his best parts come when he's fighting the beast. I loved his relationship with his son, in many ways it reminded me of Batman and Oracle. Joseph really believes that his dad is a superhero and actually has some important stuff to do here. For that matter, Elijah's mom and Casey, the abductee who escaped in Split had equally important roles, so in a way, all three of them felt like sidekicks for our main three characters.
The true antagonist in the film was basically everyone who hates comics in general and who believe that its all fantasy and waste of time. People underestimate the importance of comics and the motivation that people get from getting to know their favorite characters. There are amazing stories and so many awesome characters and I feel like no one has the right to say that comic books are a waste of time before actually knowing about them. A couple of DC and Marvel easter eggs were spotted here. The stories in comics may not be true but the possibility that they could exist in the real world just makes our hearts skip a beat and give us a thrush of excitement however stupid it may seem and I guess we shouldn't let anyone steal that from us. This trilogy was made for the comic book fans and it's pretty clear that M Night Shyamalan has been a comic book fanboy before it was cool. For that, I really respect him and this trilogy, in my opinion, is M Night's best work yet. As somewhat of a comic book fan myself, I thoroughly enjoyed Glass and would rate it the best of all three because of McAvoy's scintillating performance and Elijah's so-called 'purpose'. It's not a typical hero fighting a villain to save the day type of story, and I enjoyed this different take on a comic book movie.
VERDICT:
Fan in Me: 8.8/10
Critic in Me: 8/10
Rotten Tomatoes are so wrong about this and I think this is something every person who claims themselves as a 'comic book fan' must watch.
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