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M. Night Shyamalan's GLASS (Dragonlord's Review)
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Stupid upon inspection.. But effective for me on first viewing.
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Just saw it. Looking forward to reading your guys' thoughts.
What I would just begin with is that it felt like it started in a very compelling manner, meandered for a bit, and then began to crumble under the weight of its Lady in the Water-esque pretentiousness. I half expected Freddie Rodriguez to walk out with his half muscular/half normal frame to wander out and explain part of the mythos.
That's really one of my biggest complaints there. I think that M. Night is so concerned with the mythos and building his lore that he sometimes forget that just making an effective movie is sometimes enough. This is certainly not the worst film he's made but it's a disappointment because Unbreakable and Split were substantially better.
One other complaint that I have is the ending (well, the denouement overall is packed with a lot of exposition and rapid-fire information and there are multiple issues I have with it, but this is the main thing):
Feel like Night should have reigned in on some of his ideas. The Crumb train reveal was perfectly fine to me. Fitting, honestly. But a lot of the other stuff that was revealed in the ending felt contrived.
What I would just begin with is that it felt like it started in a very compelling manner, meandered for a bit, and then began to crumble under the weight of its Lady in the Water-esque pretentiousness. I half expected Freddie Rodriguez to walk out with his half muscular/half normal frame to wander out and explain part of the mythos.
That's really one of my biggest complaints there. I think that M. Night is so concerned with the mythos and building his lore that he sometimes forget that just making an effective movie is sometimes enough. This is certainly not the worst film he's made but it's a disappointment because Unbreakable and Split were substantially better.
One other complaint that I have is the ending (well, the denouement overall is packed with a lot of exposition and rapid-fire information and there are multiple issues I have with it, but this is the main thing):
I don't like the implication that we are supposed to applaud comic-crazed mass-murdering psycho as having achieved some empowering event. Clearly we are meant to be rooting for the notion that he got one up on The League of Shadows errr faceless organization, but Elijah did all kinds of sordid shit just to find Dunn and improve his own sense of self-worth/understanding of his identity. Film makes it like he did humanity a great service because now other extraordinary beings will be empowered to come forward. I don't buy it.
Dunn's story arc and the early stuff with Willis and Spencer Treat Clark was good. I quite liked it. But the bottom line is that Dunn's story also sort of got co-opted into the Glass mastermind plan in the sense that...well, the best way I can put it is that Willis' character is the only straight up actual hero and yet he's the only one that the "showing the world who we are" thing is pretty much unimportant to. Horde wanted to showcase The Beast and Glass wanted superhumans to be brought into the light. Dunn was just trying to right wrongs and yet he's somehow lumped in with that whole "reveal ourselves to the masses," thing. It felt hollow to me.
To a large extent, the movie felt like the McAvoy show. Great work from him akin to what he did in Split. Jackson is always a strongt presence on screen, but I thought the film really started to unravel when Glass came to the forefront.
One of the positives that I gleaned (aside from the opening twenty minutes and the quality work from McAvoy and Anya Taylor Joy) were some of the cool shots and the clashes between Dunn and The Beast. There's a visual moment I very much liked when Dunn throws himself and The Beast (who is trying to crush him) through a window. As McAvoy starts to get up, looking a bit winded and out of it, he looks to see Dunn stand with no visible damage, not even looking any worse for wear. It's a very cool moment there because it sets the tone for the matchup between them. I like how M. Night didn't cut corners and try to make it as though The Beast is strong enough to be a potentially fatal danger to Dunn. He tries his finishing move in the earlygoing and it does nothing to Willis. Later, when he is attempting to strangle him when they are fighting outside the hospital, Dunn merely starts choking him back and actually does get the better of the exchange, ultimately slamming him multiple times into the truck. Before the SWAT guys intervene, McAvoy looks like he's gassing.
This might seem like a strange point to harp on, but I did like that notion that as powerful as the Beast was, there was no way he was going to be able to put Dunn away without water.
Dunn's story arc and the early stuff with Willis and Spencer Treat Clark was good. I quite liked it. But the bottom line is that Dunn's story also sort of got co-opted into the Glass mastermind plan in the sense that...well, the best way I can put it is that Willis' character is the only straight up actual hero and yet he's the only one that the "showing the world who we are" thing is pretty much unimportant to. Horde wanted to showcase The Beast and Glass wanted superhumans to be brought into the light. Dunn was just trying to right wrongs and yet he's somehow lumped in with that whole "reveal ourselves to the masses," thing. It felt hollow to me.
To a large extent, the movie felt like the McAvoy show. Great work from him akin to what he did in Split. Jackson is always a strongt presence on screen, but I thought the film really started to unravel when Glass came to the forefront.
One of the positives that I gleaned (aside from the opening twenty minutes and the quality work from McAvoy and Anya Taylor Joy) were some of the cool shots and the clashes between Dunn and The Beast. There's a visual moment I very much liked when Dunn throws himself and The Beast (who is trying to crush him) through a window. As McAvoy starts to get up, looking a bit winded and out of it, he looks to see Dunn stand with no visible damage, not even looking any worse for wear. It's a very cool moment there because it sets the tone for the matchup between them. I like how M. Night didn't cut corners and try to make it as though The Beast is strong enough to be a potentially fatal danger to Dunn. He tries his finishing move in the earlygoing and it does nothing to Willis. Later, when he is attempting to strangle him when they are fighting outside the hospital, Dunn merely starts choking him back and actually does get the better of the exchange, ultimately slamming him multiple times into the truck. Before the SWAT guys intervene, McAvoy looks like he's gassing.
This might seem like a strange point to harp on, but I did like that notion that as powerful as the Beast was, there was no way he was going to be able to put Dunn away without water.
Feel like Night should have reigned in on some of his ideas. The Crumb train reveal was perfectly fine to me. Fitting, honestly. But a lot of the other stuff that was revealed in the ending felt contrived.
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Great point as usual!
By that same token, I suppose one could argue that the aliens might not have even known water was a danger to them if they had never encountered it prior to arriving on earth. If you accept that, then the notion of "why would they come to a planet with so much water" becomes immaterial.
M. Night cameo king does say that they seem to avoid water but that could very well be because some scouts learned the hard way during the initial recon that it messes them up.
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Not strange at all, I'm right there with you. If there was one salvageable moment from this wretched abortion of a film, it was that moment where The Beast's hug of death didn't break Dunn. It was a more compelling matchup of superpowers than any I will probably ever see on film, and even though the rest of the movie goes straight down the shitter, I guess at least there was this one glimmering moment of hope early on. It's literally the only thing from the film I thought was any good at all. (Besides the title, which is fantastic - though it did not even deliver on that, no goddamn Glass for the first hour)
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Seen tonight with my gf (who just seen Umbreakble and Split to see it), we both liked it, i gave 8
About the clover symbol and the mindset
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
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).
About the clover symbol and the mindset
i found the 3 leaf clover symbol very smart pick actually.
4 leaf clover is considered exceptional (being so rare anomaly) in same way the three protagonists are
The org champion normality as the ultimate goal, so the super normal, common, 3 leaf version is the perfect symbol for them.
They are anti-anomaly, any "4 leaf person" is theyr enemy
And being purposely unexceptional is theyr whole phylosophy
That's why the mediocre deaths (we don't even see Dunn's assassin face, because he's not relevant) or the mediocre meeting instead some crazy giant top secret HQ
They're the anti-hype, they was there to be sure you don't get your superhero showdown... they won, so you don't got it
Kinda remind me how in Umbreakable, Glass expected some kind of epic face-off with his nemesis... but Dunn denied it to him and just called the cops like a normal citizien
Essentially the movie actively chosen to not entertain in the final part. It has been coherent
Ps: but i admit i will have liked, i even expected, to see post-cretis scene of Dunn's son to become some kind of powerless vigilante to honor his dad memory
4 leaf clover is considered exceptional (being so rare anomaly) in same way the three protagonists are
The org champion normality as the ultimate goal, so the super normal, common, 3 leaf version is the perfect symbol for them.
They are anti-anomaly, any "4 leaf person" is theyr enemy
And being purposely unexceptional is theyr whole phylosophy
That's why the mediocre deaths (we don't even see Dunn's assassin face, because he's not relevant) or the mediocre meeting instead some crazy giant top secret HQ
They're the anti-hype, they was there to be sure you don't get your superhero showdown... they won, so you don't got it
Kinda remind me how in Umbreakable, Glass expected some kind of epic face-off with his nemesis... but Dunn denied it to him and just called the cops like a normal citizien
Essentially the movie actively chosen to not entertain in the final part. It has been coherent
Ps: but i admit i will have liked, i even expected, to see post-cretis scene of Dunn's son to become some kind of powerless vigilante to honor his dad memory
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Watched it last night. The begging and the end are the only parts I liked. Everything in between was kind of dumb. There were a lot of great ideas here. I thought the secret society thing was perfect and I loved how Glass outsmarted them. I was hoping he would but when he died I wasn't sure anymore, didn't see him as the suicide type but I guess he was.
Doesn't look like they will continue this story line which is fine.
Doesn't look like they will continue this story line which is fine.
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I know I'm late to the party here, but I just felt the need to rant after a friend brought it up earlier.
The ending ruined the movie for me. I loved Split, enjoyed Unbreakable, and was really looking forward to this movie. I saw the bad reviews, but i went to go see it because of the previous two movies.
Not counting plot holes, one of my biggest problems with Glass is how they so poorly handled the characters. While the psych institution was interesting, I didn't buy it.
Dunn's entire character arc in Unbreakable was learning, and accepting his potential and abilities. Learning to believe. He then spends 19 years having visions of the bad deeds of others, bending steel, overpowering grown adults like children, presumably withstanding things that should leave him otherwise injured, etc. but Shaymalan thinks he can hit the reset button on Dunn and now he suddenly doesn't believe in himself again. The notion of "Maybe I'm just a regular man" should be ludicrous at this point. Same for The Beast quite frankly. If that's not enough, after hitting the reset button on Dunn's character the entire movie, they just throw him away by drowning him in a puddle. Who drowns him? Some random bad-guy they introduced just a few seconds prior. What a twist! It's clever because you didn't see it coming! Load of crap. There's no character growth, purpose, or much of anything. Dunn is just a tool to make a YouTube video of super-humans in the last 5 minutes of the movie.
Same for The Beast. It was amazing watching all the personalities, but after hiding away for 20 something years, after what amounts to probably less than 5 minutes of exposure to the real world in this movie, Kevin is suddenly willing to, and has the ability to keep the Light to himself. He has a last minute shoehorned full circle character arc. Better than Dunn, but again, poor handling and wasted potential.
There was no real payoff. The entire payoff to this movie was the fact that they defeated the secret society (IMMEDIATELY AFTER IT WAS EVEN INTRODUCED) by revealing a few YouTube clips of superhuman feats. Maybe I'd care more if there was a higher focus on the video and the effects on the populace, but no, the movie ends right there with no further expansion. It's out, roll credits. You can kill everyone off sure, but make their purpose and departure seem a little bit more meaningful.
Any other thoughts?
The ending ruined the movie for me. I loved Split, enjoyed Unbreakable, and was really looking forward to this movie. I saw the bad reviews, but i went to go see it because of the previous two movies.
Not counting plot holes, one of my biggest problems with Glass is how they so poorly handled the characters. While the psych institution was interesting, I didn't buy it.
Dunn's entire character arc in Unbreakable was learning, and accepting his potential and abilities. Learning to believe. He then spends 19 years having visions of the bad deeds of others, bending steel, overpowering grown adults like children, presumably withstanding things that should leave him otherwise injured, etc. but Shaymalan thinks he can hit the reset button on Dunn and now he suddenly doesn't believe in himself again. The notion of "Maybe I'm just a regular man" should be ludicrous at this point. Same for The Beast quite frankly. If that's not enough, after hitting the reset button on Dunn's character the entire movie, they just throw him away by drowning him in a puddle. Who drowns him? Some random bad-guy they introduced just a few seconds prior. What a twist! It's clever because you didn't see it coming! Load of crap. There's no character growth, purpose, or much of anything. Dunn is just a tool to make a YouTube video of super-humans in the last 5 minutes of the movie.
Same for The Beast. It was amazing watching all the personalities, but after hiding away for 20 something years, after what amounts to probably less than 5 minutes of exposure to the real world in this movie, Kevin is suddenly willing to, and has the ability to keep the Light to himself. He has a last minute shoehorned full circle character arc. Better than Dunn, but again, poor handling and wasted potential.
There was no real payoff. The entire payoff to this movie was the fact that they defeated the secret society (IMMEDIATELY AFTER IT WAS EVEN INTRODUCED) by revealing a few YouTube clips of superhuman feats. Maybe I'd care more if there was a higher focus on the video and the effects on the populace, but no, the movie ends right there with no further expansion. It's out, roll credits. You can kill everyone off sure, but make their purpose and departure seem a little bit more meaningful.
Any other thoughts?
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It's post-2003 Shyamalan. If anyone expected good writing, well they should give me some money to produce this great Highlander sequel I've got cooking...
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I could write a better movie than M. Fact. His broad ideas are pretty good, his execution and dialogue is amateur at times. I'm going to say it, if he were a white guy, he would in no way get the pass he gets for bad dialogue and questionable writing.
The village was pretty good, btw.
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The twist ending was fine. Problems with it was being drawn out, not well written and filmed.
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Okay, for you and Shadow Priest, "post-2004" Shyamalan.
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10 Cloverfield Lane was basically better Shyamalan than (post-2004) Shyamalan, a better version of Split or The Visit. But nobody in the general public gives a crap about Josh Campbell or Matthew Stuecken (the writers).
These days, it's a celebration and a return to form if Shyamalan writes something that isn't just plain terrible.
The Visit was not good. It was just a lot better than The Last Airbender. Even Split was nothing special, and by the very end scene with Bruce Willis, he was back to clunky, forced, "first draft" dialogue.
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I saw in Glass a lot of the same problems I had with Lady in the Water (though I think Glass is a better film than Water). Shayamalan gets so caught up in the mythos that he locks himself in a corner and it ends up hindering the film.
I thought Split was a tight movie because it basically stuck to the bread and butter elements of a psychological thriller. Plus, it had a very strong performance or multiple performances from McAvoy.
In Glass, he tries to cater too much to his mythology and it doesn't work. I've seen way worse, but it's a film that could have been substantially better than it was.
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I dislike modern Shaymalan, but I loved Split. I was on a plane when I decided to give it a go and was expecting hot garbage, but was pleasantly surprised. Maybe it was just Macavoy's portrayal, but I totally bought his character was engaged throughout the movie.
When I heard about Glass, I was rightfully worried he'd disappoint.
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I agree with all of that.
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Not reading, subscribed
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I agree with just about everything here. The fact that this could have been so much better is what was so frustrating to me.
He locks himself into a corner quite literally by locking up all the characters in one spot, and does nothing with it. Meandering about in the middle act trying to persuade us to believe what has already been shown false. They might be regular people? Fuck off.
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