Glass

Glass drawls you in with the anticipation of the superhero battle between Unbreakable’s (2000) David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Splits “The Beast” in the culminating trilogy named after the nemesis of the Unbreakable film, Mr. Glass (Sam L Jackson).

However, this is not about that. There’s no real epic battle against one another, huge sets pieces or an effort to save the world from some catastrophe which is the reason most of us paid for a ticket admission in the first place.

It’s actually pretty deceitful or audaciously bold on the part of writer-director M. Night Shyamalan, depending on how you look at it, but with that being said you have no choice but to watch the situation play out and with that a clever sub-narrative feature takes it’s place. 

Not the one we came to see or wanted but one that becomes highly interesting and sets the path for many more new stories to emerge in this Shyamalan created universe.

For those less familiar with the trilogy, the story pits the man with superhuman strength who doesn’t brake or feel pain, Dunn, up against the split personality horde who’s super-human entity known as “The Beast” (James McAvoy) stalks his innocent victims, young woman, and literally eats them alive.

The clash between the hooded vigilante and and wall-crawling Beast happens rather quickly as Willis comes to the rescue of four kidnapped cheerleaders (in cheerleader uniforms) just as the beast readies for his feast.

Their confrontation in an abandoned industrial building spills to the streets where they are apprehended by a Dr. Elle Staple (Sarah Paulson), who specializes in troubled individuals who think they are superheroes and brings them back to normalcy… back to reality.

One of her current guest at the psychiatric ward is the infamous Mr. Glass who’s been drooling on drugs and suppressants for as far as we know the 19 years since we last seen him in Unbreakable, however, he is “woken” from his slumber to take part in this group therapy with her new guests who also suffer from delusions of super heroism… or supervillianism. 

And this is where the film stumbles quite a bit before slightly regaining it’s footing down the road and now it makes a lot of sense why Shyamalan had to self finance this film, a sequel to the highly successful Split himself …

He changes the expectations and narrative of the film within the first act.

Instead of a battle to save the world.  It’s a battle of the minds.  It’s a battle to believe in yourself, your true ability when the world is telling you that your delusional, ordinary and are no different than person next to you on your daily commute to work.

It turns into a question of are people capable of being more than what they think they are, which to me doesn’t really translate directly to a question of are superheroes real?

Instead its more of a statement and challenge to the viewers, the ordinary, the everyday men and woman stuck in a rut, in a perpetual cycle of melancholiness and that you too are special.  There’s greatness in you and all you have to do is believe it in yourself.

The message is good but not what I came to see. And despite Shyamalan’s best effort to offer up his trademark twist ending I still feel cheated at the end. But as Mr. Glass states in the climatic finale, “this is an origin story,” not a sequel.

Just wish I knew that before hand.