Glass

Last night I finally had a chance to see Glass, M. Night Shyamalan's sequel to Unbreakable and Split.  As one of the few people who actually liked Unbreakable, I was very eager to see it and, while there are problems, I really enjoyed this psychological thriller.  The movie begins with David Dunn (Bruce Willis) who, with technical support from his son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), acts as The Overseer, a vigilante taking down criminals using his extrasensory perception.  He encounters Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) and learns the location of four girls whom Crumb has abducted.  The Overseer confronts him in the persona of The Beast which culminates in their arrest and imprisonment in the mental institution where Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), known as Mr. Glass, is being held.  Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulsen), a psychiatrist specializing in treating people with delusions of grandeur, tries to convince David, Kevin, and Elijah that they are normal and that their superpowers have logical explanations.  She enlists Joseph, Mrs. Price (Charlayne Woodard), and Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), who survived an attack by The Beast, to help convince the three that they are mentally ill rather than extraordinary.  Glass, acting in the role of a superhero mastermind, plans the escape of all three hoping for an epic showdown between The Overseer and The Beast to show the world that superheroes really do exist but they are ultimately stopped by Staple.  Of course, in true Shyamalan form, there are several plot twists which lead to some redemption.  While there are some rather sketchy plot holes in the narrative, I enjoyed Shyamalan's supposition that comic books are the mythology of real world superheroes.  I also really liked the theme that it is important to see people as they really are.  All three leads give fantastic performances.  McAvoy believably moves from character to character in an instant, Willis gives one of his best performances in recent memory, and Jackson is completely over the top.  The production design is really interesting with each character inhabiting a specific color (carried over from the previous movies) juxtaposed with an otherwise drab institutional color palette and the hand-held camera work reinforces the claustrophobia.  The biggest issue I have with this movie is that it sometimes has way too much exposition, as if Shyamalan doesn't think the audience has seen the prequels.  However, I think this is an interesting and entertaining end to the saga and would recommend it.