**** outta *****

4 outta 5

Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan has a bit of a spotty track record. The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Split are hits and stuff like After Earth, The Happening and Lady in the Water are misses, to put it charitably. His latest film, Glass, is maybe one of his most ambitious yet as it’s a sequel to both 2000’s Unbreakable and 2017’s Split. Split wasn’t revealed to be an Unbreakable sequel until the closing seconds however both films feel of the same universe so combining them works very well. This is sort of Shyamalan’s version of Avengers: Infinity War where the audience is thrown into a world of multiple backstories and characters and just runs with it which may confuse some. Still it has some very cool moments and a challenging ending that will probably divide audiences. Shyamalan’s trademark of a slow burn is a wee bit too slow here but there are universally great performances, lush visuals and strange bits. This is a psychological thriller/horror movie version of a superhero story that mostly succeeds.

Home security expert David Dunn (Bruce Willis) moonlights as a raincoat wearing superhero with the help of his son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark). David has incredible superpowers like super-strength and the ability to sense danger which he is using to find a bad guy. Known in the press as the Horde, Kevin (James McAvoy) has multiple personalities battling for dominance. Kevin’s most dangerous personality is the super-strong and murderous Beast who kidnaps teenage girls although, surprisingly, the Beast let one of his victims go, a girl named Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy). After battling it out, both David and Kevin are thrown into a psychological hospital by Doctor Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), who treats people who are suffering from a disorder of the mind thinking they have superpowers like something out of a comic book. Also locked up is the evil mastermind, Elijah Price aka Mister Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) who 19 years ago committed multiple acts of terrorism to find a superhero in David. With Kevin freaking out in captivity and David convinced he is the only one who can stop him, the seemingly comatose Mister Glass may be planning a scheme that could change the world.

At worst, it would seem Shyamalan has awkwardly wedged the characters from Split into his Unbreakable sequel but happily merging the two films works. There is quite a lot of backstory going into this that the movie mostly skims over and frankly watching both Unbreakable and Split beforehand is almost required. The entire relationship of Kevin to his other personalities and how they take charge won’t make a lick of sense unless one has seen Split. Mister Glass and David’s history is confusing unless one has seen Unbreakable. There is some great cross cutting from footage of Unbreakable to present day as Clark also played Joseph in Unbreakable so seeing him go from kid to adult in an instant is affecting.

As much as this is about superpowers there isn’t a lot of superhero battles as it’s more of a creepy mood performance piece set almost entirely in a mental hospital which is a good location to let actors literally go nuts. Glass is the title character of the film yet he spends the first half drugged up and silent but eventually Jackson gets to deliver full supervillain mastermind monologues. Back as the hero, Willis is a likable regular guy with a history of sadness on his shoulders. As Kevin, McAvoy gets to ping-pong between different characters rapidly, like an incredible scene where Kevin is subjected to flashing lights that toggles between his personalities instantly. Taylor-Joy’s Casey seems to have developed oddly emotional feelings for her former kidnapper which is a bit jarring after how she’s desperate to escape in Split. Newcomer to the franchise is Paulson’s doctor who seems a wee bit like a parody of how psychologists in the ‘50s used to tout the evils of comic books being “The Seduction of the Innocent”, however her best stuff is saved for the end where she gets to be really disturbing.

The ending is interesting and features some nifty continuity tying together of the two films and a probably dozen unexpected plot swerves. There is the requisite throwdown between the two characters that is small scale yet still emotionally epic because Shyamalan has done a good job of setting up the stakes of their confrontation. There’s definite closure to the three films storylines yet, like any superhero movie, enough is leftover dangling for a possible unique return to this world. Visually, Shyamalan has made a very good looking movie with lots of slow long takes for a disorienting feeling. The music by West Dylan Thordson brings back a lot of themes from the previous two films which helps a lot.

Glass may hold back the title character but when he unleashes, it is worth it. It has taken almost 20 years of Shyamalan to tell his epic, unique superhero horror thriller mash up movie and the conclusion is stirring and challenging. It takes its time setting the mood but when it goes crazy, it is unrelenting. This is not a standard superhero tale but it is a very cool one.