Glass (2019) Review

Title: Glass
Year: 2019
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Country: US
Language: English

M. Night Shyamalan's Superhero Trilogy started with Unbreakable (2000), continued seventeen years later with Split (2017), and ends with Glass (2019). Since Unbreakable the film-maker's career has been a rollercoaster ride; making hits like Signs (2002) and devestating financial failures like The Last Airbender (2010). I went into his latest picture with a great degree of caution, as we could really get anything from this director. 

Security guard David Dunn (Bruce Willis) uses his supernatural abilities to track Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), a disturbed man who has twenty-four personalities. They both find themselves trapped in a mental hospital, contending with a psychiatrist who is out to prove they are both mentally ill. 

My biggest issue with Glass (2019) is that it re-tells the story of Unbreakable, but in a much less exciting way. The story of Unbreakable is that Dunn has to be convinced that he's a superhero through miraculous discoveries. In this film a nurse asks "well how do you know you're a superhero? maybe you just have extraordinary abilities."

1. What is the difference between being a "superhuman" and having "extraordinary abilities"?
2. How does he know he's a superhero!? because of all the events in Unbreakable!

Split was a masterful picture because of its clear Hitchcock inspiration. The suspense of "what is the beast?" builds up to a terrifying climax. Glass is a great disservice to McAvoy's character as an little mystery left to the horde is whisked away by comedic misfires. The final "twist" of Glass feels insulting as very little effort was made to build up to it. Rather than an exclamation point, the finale falls miserably flat.