Movie Rating 8 out of 10
Family Rating Adult Themes, Violence, some coarse language
M Night Shyamalan started his directing his career with the incredible The Sixth Sense, then in 2000 came Unbreakable with Bruce Willis in the lead. Since then, many of his films failed to register with audiences, Signs, The Village, The Happening and then he went from poor to awful with The Last Airbender and After Earth. His career looked at an end until he went back to his roots and made the amazing Split, with James McAvoy and this last piece of the trilogy, 20 years in the making, Glass.
While Unbreakable and Split can be watched without knowing the full story, I would recommend that you watch both of these before seeing Glass. If you haven’t seen the first two there may be some spoilers ahead but not the outcomes of each movie so I hope it encourages you to see them rather than puts you off. Unbreakable, starring Bruce Willis tells the story of David Dunn, the sole survivor of a major train crash, who becomes the obsession of Elijah Price, Samuel L Jackson, who is a brilliant man but has a condition that has weakened his bone structure so that they will break under the slightest pressure. Price confronts Dunn and tells him that he believes that he is a superhero who has a role to play in helping others. This movie has a real twist at the end that I will not reveal.
Split is the story of a man, James McAvoy, who has 24 distinct personalities. He has kidnapped 3 young girls and the movie goes through how each of the personalities interrelates, with some trying to save the girls while others welcome the arrival of the personality known as the Beast. James McAvoy is amazing as he revolves through so many characters, who refer to their collective self as the Horde, each with its own voice and characteristics. The film plays out as a stand-alone story until the very last scene where Split and Unbreakable become linked.
So this is a long build-up to my review on Glass. This movie focuses on the character of Elijah Price, from the Unbreakable movie. Dr Ellie Staple, Sarah Paulson, brings Dunn, the Horde and Price together in a program designed to reform people who believe that they may have superhuman powers to see that they are just normal. While none of them is the standard superheroes/villains of Marvel status they believe that they have significant powers which are brought into question by the doctor’s treatment. The film has continual twists and without adding any spoilers we find out at the end who has been manipulating who.
The three main actors in Bruce Willis, James McAvoy and Samuel Jackson, play their roles brilliantly and the film becomes a real anti-hero superhero story. This trilogy, that started 19 years ago comes to an end with the same sort of twist that M Night Shyamalan was famous for in his earliest movies. So I not only encourage you to go and see this movie but if possible get your hands on Unbreakable and Split before you do.