M. Night Shyamalan's GLASS (Dragonlord's Review)

[Zookeeper Gabe]

I hadn’t seen Unbreakable or Glass and I thought I may go see this. But the trailers make it look awful and I want nothing to do with any of his movies.

 

[Ikuza]

Thanks @Dragonlordxxxxx

Now I’m really glad I skipped the early showing.

 

[taurus]

Bottom Line: Disappointing.

And I only recently watched Split, just so I can watch Glass.

First Incredibles 2, now this. Please, oh please, can anyone make a decent sequel to a great movie? I'll still see it, just to conclude the story.

Damn it.

 

[SmilinDesperado]

I'm going to say it.. If M. Night was white, his completely shitty dialogue at times would have been pointed out years ago, and he would have disappeared.

Every movie he makes has some of the clumsiest dialogue I have ever seen. Even his good ones. He writes about things he doesn't understand that well, and it shows. The scenes in 'signs' talking about baseball didn't sound like Americans talking about baseball. The early scenes in 'unbreakable' had some HORRIBLE dialogue.. The woman on the train talking about the kid she reps doesn't sound like a sports agent, at all.

M's movies have done of thee worst dialogue moments of any modern movies. He sets atmosphere ok, and has a unique style, but he hasn't been puking off his ideas in a long time. What you said about him having ideas, but not executing, is spot-I'm.

Not sure where you got the race angle from, there is no shortage of bad dialogue to be found in Hollywood movies, and yet, movies written and directed by white guys are still made everyday without much of a deal made.

Different directors have different strengths and weaknesses, and if you have a shtick, then dialogue won't matter as much in certain movies. Nobody is going to care too much about the dialogue in a Michael Bay movie because you're going to get big explosions and action. And in a Night movie, he usually tries to do some sort of mystery/twist that distracts from his bad dialogue.
He got a ton of good will from his first movies like 6th Sense and Unbreakable. He was doing movies that were different, that's why he stayed around as long as he has.

I will agree on your other point though. He writes these scenes where he clearly has no experience in the topic that he's writing about. There was a scene in 'Glass' where I had this exact thought..but can't recall exactly what it was about at the moment.

 

[SmilinDesperado]

Id give it about a 6 too. I also found times in the movie where i was bored.

The doctors character was as bland as she was directed to be and that contributed to the dullness. When her purpose was revealed and her moments were extended at the very end, i sat there and thought: who fucking cares.

I came to see the 3 main characters not this other bullshit. This is how i meant earlier about a bold move landing flat.

I had the same thought
They wasted so much damn time on the hospital and the bullshit around that. I didn't care about that. I wanted those 3 characters to interact.
And that whole thing made no sense anyways.

Spoiler

"I have 3 days to convince you that you don't have powers" How does that make any sense? I can't be delusional about something like super strength or durability. Those are very easily provable powers. How are you going to convince me that I haven't done all the superhuman shit I've already done? Made absolutely no sense.

 

[SamSchmidt]

God. Now I can't even trust other regular Joe blow civilian reviews let alone Pro critic reviews. I will see it myself today.

What movie did you go into with low low expectations and come out absolutely impressed?

I think mine was the first SAW

 

[CoolB]

well shit

will watch still

 

[Mondo Freaks]

not surprised. For every good movie M Night makes, he makes 3 shitty ones

 

[MMA since 1993]

Well...

 

[TrueBias]

Spoiler

The clover shit was something i simply didnt give a shit about. So theres a group that does not want super heroes. Yeah, im gonna need some expansion on that because all i hear here is M. Night is trying to be different. The aduience, us, already has been spoiled with super hero movies, so the stakes being high for exposing them to the world was lukewarm. That said, the 3 remaining characters seeing it unfold or hearing the doctor scream from her fuck up was lackluster. I found myself with a similar desperate desire for more as i did with lsst jedi.

So....why couldnt dunn just do a push up? Water makes him that weak? Why couldnt the horde switch back to the beast to deal with the gunshot? fruitless questions, i know. Biggest question though:

Why, oh why, would the Hordes victim give 1 shit about helping kevin??.

 

[ufcfan4]

Sorry to hear. I think Unbreakable is legitimately awesome and I’m watching Split for the first time this weekend. Will probably give it a view just to finish up the series but obviously going to manage expectations.

 

[KnightTemplar]

Update: January 17, 2019

Dragonlord’s Review of GLASS (No Spoilers)

Bottom Line: Disappointing. M. Night Shyamalan ruins the exciting cinematic universe he created with a silly story, some clumsy dialogue, stupid character decisions and going in a different, slightly boring direction instead of what the audience wanted.

Representing one of M. Night Shyamalan’s best work, Unbreakable was a slow-burn, suspenseful realistic superhero thriller that was narrated brilliantly with unpredictable twists and turns. Split was a come-out-of-nowhere highly-entertaining horror thriller that signaled M. Night’s potential comeback. Despite the exciting prospect of seeing the return of David Dunn (Bruce Willis) going up against a supernatural serial killer in The Horde (James McAvoy), Glass shatters audience’s expectations and goes off in a totally different and slightly boring direction.

There’s no proper build-up between the confrontation between David and the Horde/the Beast. There’s no variation of a tense cat-and-mouse chase, the two just go at it in the first ten minutes. Glass is in a rush to put these two in the mental hospital where majority of the movie takes place and where I am constantly infuriated upon seeing how impractical and stupid the mental institution’s security methods and protocols are. It does not help that the head shrink Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) is annoying with her way of thinking and the way she talks.

McAvoy again shines with his multiple personality performance but the scene where most of Kevin’s personalities come out in rapid succession felt too gimmicky. Kevin’s character works best when the 4-5 prominent personalities are given screen time. Enjoying a reprieve from slumming the straight-to-video market, Willis is enjoyable as the likable Dunn but the movie just doesn’t give him too much to do. Samuel L. Jackson as the titular character is very entertaining when he finally breaks free from his catatonic state and we see him outsmart everybody (even if it’s up against the world’s lousiest security institution). Anya Taylor-Joy returns as Casey Cooke looks absolutely lovely but some of her actions are perplexingly questionable and her role in here seemed forced.

Rounding up my thoughts: West Dylan Thordson’s score was good. The film was surprisingly tame, meaning it lacked the edge, the uneasiness, the disturbing images from the previous two installments. The meta subtext and dialogue were clumsily handled and occasionally cheesy. The secret organization’s meetings were dumb and laughable. The ending was a major disappointment (see spoiler box below). There is no post-credit scene.

Rating: 6/10

Spoiler: (Warning) Spoiler thoughts on Glass inside

Super sucks that a stupid secret anti-superheroes organization killed David and Kevin and in such underwhelming and meaningless way also. I am okay with Kevin dying but killing off David sucks big time.

The secret anti-superhero organization’s meeting is so impractical and extremely stupid. Instead of meeting in their own secret lair or just even rent a private conference room, they meet in a very public and packed restaurant or lounge and they wait until the last of the patrons leave before they start their meetings.

The clover tattoos as the secret organization's symbol felt like M. Night didn't give it a lot of thought.

Clover = Cloverfield. Hmmm...

When they introduced the plot of Mr. Glass and the Horde trying to blow up the Osaka Tower and David has to stop them, the thought of the showdown happening in public had me getting excited. Shame that it didn’t happen. They would have needed an extra $10 million in their budget to pull that scene off though (Glass’ budget is only $20 million).

Does Cooke have any powers?

Disappointing review. I'll still watch it, but only if I have a free day.

 

[Amerikuracana]

I don't buy the race angle, but his dialogue is painfully awful. It's the main reason I walked out of "Signs". I just couldn't handle the cringe any longer. It still blows me away at how well that movie was received. It was a true blue turd. Just awful. I think people were just blinded by his previous flicks, and just couldn't come to the realization that he made a complete piece of shit. The blinders finally came off with "The Village". I think "Signs" has fallen out of favor as time has gone on as well. It's like once his career really started to nosedive, people went back and started thinking "Shit, how did we not see this coming?"

"Signs"...so bad. Probably the most overrated movie of all time, for me. Some would say "Avatar"(the Cameron flick), but that flick was merely mediocre. "Signs" was an absolute embarrassment, that was praised like it was the second coming of "Close Encounters of The Third Kind".

The dialogue issues were there in 'signs,' for sure.. But I think the atmosphere and strangeness overcame. I don't think it's a great movie, but it creeped me out at the time. It doesn't hold up well under scrutiny, but if you let yourself in at the theatre, it pulled off creepy.

The village, I would say, had the choppy poor dialogue hidden. They were all trying to speak like modern people, who were trying to sound like people from 200 years ago. The children were raised in this strange, innocent, environment, so simple dialogue almost fits them.

I disagree with you about the village, because again, I think the story and setting hides any problems with tbe dialogue, as well as some good performances from good actors.

In signs, even Mel can't hide the bad dialogue at times.

I give the village a B+, and signs a B, based on the effective creepiness i felt at the time. Under scrutiny, signs is more like a D. Last person I watched 'the village' with had never seen it, and the twist got them. That's worth something as well.

 

[heavyarms21]

Update: January 17, 2019

Dragonlord’s Review of GLASS (No Spoilers)

Bottom Line: Disappointing. M. Night Shyamalan ruins the exciting cinematic universe he created with a silly story, some clumsy dialogue, stupid character decisions and going in a different, slightly boring direction instead of what the audience wanted.

Representing one of M. Night Shyamalan’s best work, Unbreakable was a slow-burn, suspenseful realistic superhero thriller that was narrated brilliantly with unpredictable twists and turns. Split was a come-out-of-nowhere highly-entertaining horror thriller that signaled M. Night’s potential comeback. Despite the exciting prospect of seeing the return of David Dunn (Bruce Willis) going up against a supernatural serial killer in The Horde (James McAvoy), Glass shatters audience’s expectations and goes off in a totally different and slightly boring direction.

There’s no proper build-up between the confrontation between David and the Horde/the Beast. There’s no variation of a tense cat-and-mouse chase, the two just go at it in the first ten minutes. Glass is in a rush to put these two in the mental hospital where majority of the movie takes place and where I am constantly infuriated upon seeing how impractical and stupid the mental institution’s security methods and protocols are. It does not help that the head shrink Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) is annoying with her way of thinking and the way she talks.

McAvoy again shines with his multiple personality performance but the scene where most of Kevin’s personalities come out in rapid succession felt too gimmicky. Kevin’s character works best when the 4-5 prominent personalities are given screen time. Enjoying a reprieve from slumming the straight-to-video market, Willis is enjoyable as the likable Dunn but the movie just doesn’t give him too much to do. Samuel L. Jackson as the titular character is very entertaining when he finally breaks free from his catatonic state and we see him outsmart everybody (even if it’s up against the world’s lousiest security institution). Anya Taylor-Joy returns as Casey Cooke looks absolutely lovely but some of her actions are perplexingly questionable and her role in here seemed forced.

Rounding up my thoughts: West Dylan Thordson’s score was good. The film was surprisingly tame, meaning it lacked the edge, the uneasiness, the disturbing images from the previous two installments. The meta subtext and dialogue were clumsily handled and occasionally cheesy. The secret organization’s meetings were dumb and laughable. The ending was a major disappointment (see spoiler box below). There is no post-credit scene.

Rating: 6/10

Spoiler: (Warning) Spoiler thoughts on Glass inside

Super sucks that a stupid secret anti-superheroes organization killed David and Kevin and in such underwhelming and meaningless way also. I am okay with Kevin dying but killing off David sucks big time.

The secret anti-superhero organization’s meeting is so impractical and extremely stupid. Instead of meeting in their own secret lair or just even rent a private conference room, they meet in a very public and packed restaurant or lounge and they wait until the last of the patrons leave before they start their meetings.

The clover tattoos as the secret organization's symbol felt like M. Night didn't give it a lot of thought.

Clover = Cloverfield. Hmmm...

When they introduced the plot of Mr. Glass and the Horde trying to blow up the Osaka Tower and David has to stop them, the thought of the showdown happening in public had me getting excited. Shame that it didn’t happen. They would have needed an extra $10 million in their budget to pull that scene off though (Glass’ budget is only $20 million).

On the fence to begin with . Im just going to watch Dragon Ball Super Broly again

 

[Amerikuracana]

Not sure where you got the race angle from, there is no shortage of bad dialogue to be found in Hollywood movies, and yet, movies written and directed by white guys are still made everyday without much of a deal made.

Different directors have different strengths and weaknesses, and if you have a shtick, then dialogue won't matter as much in certain movies. Nobody is going to care too much about the dialogue in a Michael Bay movie because you're going to get big explosions and action. And in a Night movie, he usually tries to do some sort of mystery/twist that distracts from his bad dialogue.
He got a ton of good will from his first movies like 6th Sense and Unbreakable. He was doing movies that were different, that's why he stayed around as long as he has.

I will agree on your other point though. He writes these scenes where he clearly has no experience in the topic that he's writing about. There was a scene in 'Glass' where I had this exact thought..but can't recall exactly what it was about at the moment.

Fair enough. Some of his dialogue is the worst I've seen. I haven't seen 'glass' yet, but when I do, I'm sure I'll notice the scene you're talking about.

 

[Amerikuracana]

And I only recently watched Split, just so I can watch Glass.

First Incredibles 2, now this. Please, oh please, can anyone make a decent sequel to a great movie? I'll still see it, just to conclude the story.

Damn it.

Unbreakable is good, but upon re-watching, the first 20 minutes is filled with shit dialogue. Jackson giving full effort pulls some of it off. It ends up being good, but I think some people are overrating it.

The fact that he made water the Achilles of both his greatest hero, and the menacing aliens in films so close together, is mind bogglingly cringey when you think about it.

Incredibles 2 was ok, but the length of the wait should have made for a freakin 3 hour epic, especially since comic book movies took off since the first. It wasn't as bad as you make it sound, but i was also a little disappointed. I would say it's good, but forgettable.

 

[Amerikuracana]

God. Now I can't even trust other regular Joe blow civilian reviews let alone Pro critic reviews. I will see it myself today.

What movie did you go into with low low expectations and come out absolutely impressed?

I think mine was the first SAW

I don't get it.. You can't trust sherdog reviews because they are bad, or?

 

[SamSchmidt]

I don't get it.. You can't trust sherdog reviews because they are bad, or?

Nah just that usually people say they don't like a movie and I end up enjoying it or at the very least feeling like it wasn't all that bad

 

[MikeMcMann]

 

[SmilinDesperado]

Actually I agreed with this view until I actually watched GLASS. I went in thinking it was gonna suck donkey balls but it turned out to have a better understanding of comic books than Marvel's recent standard blockbuster crap.

If you like Avengers type movies, GLASS may not be for you.

.....because GLASS had a bunch of scenes take place In comic book stores, and multiple characters kept bringing up the topic of comic books in the middle of serious, life or death situations?

How exactly did this movie 'understand' comic books better than the current Marvel movies?
The messages in this movie were done so hamfisted, and so done in such an unfocused way. It was a very simplistic and almost childish interpretation of what comic books supposedly are all about, imo.