I love Unbreakable, I really liked Split, and boy was I excited for Glass. Did it live up to expectations? No. But I did enjoy the film, and despite its flaws there is a lot to like about Shyamalan's new chapter in this unexpected franchise.
This film takes place a few weeks after the events of Split, and places David Dunn, Elijah Price, and the bevy of personalities within Kevin Wendell Crumb in a mental hospital. I'm going to leave it at that as this is the kind of movie you want to go into completely spoiler free.
I want to talk about James McAvoy first. I strongly believe that despite Split's early release and genre James McAvoy deserve a best supporting actor nomination, as his work was brilliant. He is even better this time around. Any one of his performances alone would be brilliant, but the way he physically and verbally embodies so many vastly different characters is truly masterful to watch. This is truly brilliant work. Back as Elijah Price is Samuel L. Jackson. His character isn't used much in the first half of the film, but once his role increases he does some solid work. Bruce Willis is also back in the role of David Dunn, and boy was I surprised to see him actually try. His performance is by no means spectacular, but there is some genuine emotion behind a lot of his dialogue which was nice to see. David's son Joseph is once again played by Spencer Treat Clark. On one hand it was awesome to see him in this film as an adult, on the other hand there is a pretty important scene late in the film that he just wasn't strong enough to make work. He's not the best actor and his delivery in this one scene killed some momentum. Reprising her role from Split is Anya Taylor Joy, an actress I'm a big fan of. I found her underutilized which was unfortunate, but when she was onscreen I was pleased with her work. Oh, I forgot to mention Sarah Paulson. Paulson plays the therapist dealing with the main three characters and is unfortunately just a bit stale. The performance would have worked in a smaller role but with the amount of screen time she had she was just not interesting enough.
It seems that many are on the fence with this film, and the ending is a big reason why. My personal opinion is that there is a lot of great stuff happening that just isn't executed as well as it could have been. Some things are underdeveloped and some are just not delivered well, but I really like what Shyamalan is doing. Another complaint I've heard is that the film is too exposition heavy and slow. There is a ton of exposition, but the slow pace worked brilliantly for me. Unbreakable was a slow and intelligent film, and while this one isn't nearly as smart, it still mirrors the tone of its predecessor. Yes there is a lot of exposition but I found it all very interesting, and the ideas Shyamalan was presenting had my attention. Some cinematography really worked for me, but some really didn't. The fight scenes have a sort of subjective camerawork that I think made for an interesting choice but one that ultimately didn't work. I liked the fight scenes other than those shots, but they felt pretty out of place.
All in all I enjoyed this movie. It's not as good as either predecessor but it isn't near as bad as some are making it out to be. There's a lot going on and not all of it works, but I like a lot of what Shyamalan is going for here,
Rating: 3.4/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
This film takes place a few weeks after the events of Split, and places David Dunn, Elijah Price, and the bevy of personalities within Kevin Wendell Crumb in a mental hospital. I'm going to leave it at that as this is the kind of movie you want to go into completely spoiler free.
I want to talk about James McAvoy first. I strongly believe that despite Split's early release and genre James McAvoy deserve a best supporting actor nomination, as his work was brilliant. He is even better this time around. Any one of his performances alone would be brilliant, but the way he physically and verbally embodies so many vastly different characters is truly masterful to watch. This is truly brilliant work. Back as Elijah Price is Samuel L. Jackson. His character isn't used much in the first half of the film, but once his role increases he does some solid work. Bruce Willis is also back in the role of David Dunn, and boy was I surprised to see him actually try. His performance is by no means spectacular, but there is some genuine emotion behind a lot of his dialogue which was nice to see. David's son Joseph is once again played by Spencer Treat Clark. On one hand it was awesome to see him in this film as an adult, on the other hand there is a pretty important scene late in the film that he just wasn't strong enough to make work. He's not the best actor and his delivery in this one scene killed some momentum. Reprising her role from Split is Anya Taylor Joy, an actress I'm a big fan of. I found her underutilized which was unfortunate, but when she was onscreen I was pleased with her work. Oh, I forgot to mention Sarah Paulson. Paulson plays the therapist dealing with the main three characters and is unfortunately just a bit stale. The performance would have worked in a smaller role but with the amount of screen time she had she was just not interesting enough.
It seems that many are on the fence with this film, and the ending is a big reason why. My personal opinion is that there is a lot of great stuff happening that just isn't executed as well as it could have been. Some things are underdeveloped and some are just not delivered well, but I really like what Shyamalan is doing. Another complaint I've heard is that the film is too exposition heavy and slow. There is a ton of exposition, but the slow pace worked brilliantly for me. Unbreakable was a slow and intelligent film, and while this one isn't nearly as smart, it still mirrors the tone of its predecessor. Yes there is a lot of exposition but I found it all very interesting, and the ideas Shyamalan was presenting had my attention. Some cinematography really worked for me, but some really didn't. The fight scenes have a sort of subjective camerawork that I think made for an interesting choice but one that ultimately didn't work. I liked the fight scenes other than those shots, but they felt pretty out of place.
All in all I enjoyed this movie. It's not as good as either predecessor but it isn't near as bad as some are making it out to be. There's a lot going on and not all of it works, but I like a lot of what Shyamalan is going for here,
Rating: 3.4/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
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