Better than I’d been led to believe (Spoilers)
I’d heard this was a let down, that it failed as an Unbreakable sequel and was not as good as Split.
I actually preferred it to Split, and found it to be an interesting passion project from Shyamalan.
The idea that an elite cabal is trying to suppress individual actualisation and empowerment to keep the human population unremarkable sheep is actually very compelling and quite pertinent, so full marks to Shy for a strong and topical central conceit.
(The real world equivalent of this elite controls ‘official’ movie reviews, which explains why the RottenTomatoes critics score is so low while the audience score is high - this film is touching on forbidden truths that increasingly resonate with people)
The film started brilliantly and every actor was on form, and it was great to see Spencer Treat Clark (who I always found annoying in Gladiator) all grown up, as well as Elijah’s mum and even Shy’s cameo character all returning.
Once we get to the asylum the film remains interesting but slows down, and Shymalan seems to have a boner for watching McAvoy do his impressions, but this felt way overcooked, and left precious little time to spend with our hero, and the villain was catatonic until the last third.
Adding to the neglect of David Dunn, one of Willis’ best roles, Shy has the audacity to just kill him off… by having a random drown him in a puddle. His final moments are listening to his crazy therapist revealing that she’s actually part of an evil cabal that hates superheroes. Really? This is how David Dunn dies?
Meanwhile McAvoy is also dying, but we have to hear about five death speeches from him 🙄 One can’t help thinking that some epic confrontation between Willis and Samuel L (this is their fourth time working together) would be time better spent.
Apparently Shy funded this himself, which explains why the final battle doesn’t take place in the impressive new skyscraper… but on a lawn. The Dunn v Crumb fight was rather underwhelming too, just some pushing and the odd thump, let’s have a bit more invention please.
Another problem was some pretty creaky dialogue from Sarah Paulson, who had to explain everything in the last 10 minutes, in various sequences that felt very forced and unnatural. More show and less tell would have helped here.
The film is constantly stretching credibility, like how was this publicly accessible mental asylum legally able to detain these men? Why didn’t McAvoy just close his eyes when they were flashing lights at him? Why would you be alone in a room with, and even touch, a patient as dangerous as Crumb?
Yet somehow the film still mostly works because Shy commits to his crazy vision, and remains a great filmmaker who uses silences and long takes to great effect. There’s a Lynchian strangeness throughout with unusual camera dynamics and a fantastic pulsing score underneath. A surprise throat slashing was effective because of all the slow pacing.
Like Split, the tone here is mystery/horror, whereas Unbreakable was more drama/thriller. There’s a quiet sense of menace running through the film, with a kind of catharsis at the end when our ‘heroes’ die and a new world of Heroes, Heroes Everywhere is born - and you might be one of them if you dare to call out the powers that be.
Huge credit must go to the film for this message and for breaching woke dictates with abandon - a white male superhero saves four helpless young cheerleaders, it dares to have a black villain in Mr Glass, and a female villain in Dr Ellie Staple. Again, all these things explain the low critics score - which has become the imprimatur of a film absolutely worth watching… and Glass no exception.