I have never been an M. Night Shyamalan fan. Nope, not even The Sixth Sense (1999). So, it's no surprise that I thoroughly dislike Glass, the third in his “comic book” trilogy following Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2016).
Here is a recap of the characters: David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is the main character from Unbreakable who has super strength, psychic abilities and can't really get hurt. Elijah Price AKA Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) is the wheelchair-bound terror from Unbreakable who has such fragile bones that they are easily broken. And James McAvoy reprises his role from Split as a character with about 24 personalities, the most dangerous of which is named The Beast who is vicious and has powerful strength.
So, in Glass, all three of these characters end up in the same mental facility that has the absolute worse security. Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) tries to convince them that their superpowers and weaknesses are only in their minds. Eventually, Price and Split team up and escape. The Dunn character is put on the sidelines for much of the film, that is until the climactic three-way showdown in ... a parking lot.
Writer/Director Shyamalan's movie pretends to be low-key, but it is actually wildly pretentious, not to mention an unintentional laugh riot. Characters like Dunn's son (Spencer Treat Clark), Price's mother (Charlayne Woodard) and Split's wily would-be victim (Anya Taylor-Joy) all make like Greek chorus throughout the film to tell us how comic book characters are supposed to act in certain situations. That's just dumb. The funniest scene, however, is late in the movie when an injured McAvoy goes through a bunch of his personalities. It's impressive, but it comes off like a Robin Williams routine.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Shyamalan film without a lame twist. I won't spoil it, but I'll just say that we find out the true intentions of a character. I guess Shyamalan deserves points for not making a cookie-cutter movie and actually taking story risks, but they are so misguided.
