Following the ending of his 2016 film, Split, the king of movie twists M. Night Shyamalan had managed to surprise us all once again by revealing that the film's scary villain and the multi-personality serial killer Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) actually exists in the same universe as David Dunn (Bruce Willis), a main character in Unbreakable (2000), one of Shyamalan's most successful films and often regarded as one of the best superhero films ever made.
Split riled up his fan base in a major way. And now Shyamalan is bridging the gap between Unbreakable and Split with the third film in his trilogy, Glass.
With 16 years apart from the first film, I couldn't help but wonder if Shyamalan already had the idea for making it a trilogy when he directed Unbreakable or not.
In Glass, we see the life of super-powered being David Dunn who quit his day job as a security guard, and is now running a home security company with his grown son. Dunn is still in active as a mysterious crime fighter, known as "The Overseer", who has been keeping Philadelphia safe.
And with help from his son in the new mission, Dunn finds his way to a warehouse where he managed to rescue several kidnapped girls, who were being held by Crumb.
Dunn went into the first battle with the Beast, one of Crumb's 24 personalities, but shortly interrupted by the unknown authorities who arrested both himself and Crumb, and sent to an insane asylum led by the psychiatrist, Dr. Staple (Sarah Paulson). And there they meet the wheelchair-bound Mr Glass (Samuel L. Jackson). So here we are. All three of them together at last.
We learn Mr Glass has plans for The Beast, and plans for Dunn as well. As each secret is revealed, it eventually leads to an epic showdown between a hero and two villains.
There are a handful of terrific moments, like the flashbacks of each of the main characters, especially Mr Glass as a child at an amusement park unsuccessfully trying to cushion himself on a ride with stuffed animals so his bones won't shatter. And Dunn who nearly drowned as a child, leaving him traumatised and with a fear of water.
It's great to see Jackson and Willis reunited in their classic roles and offering such great performances as always, but McAvoy holds his own with Hollywood heavyweights, pouring his all into his complicated character and surprisingly dominates the film.
Both Unbreakable and Split, though existing in the same universe, work great as stand-alone movies -- both distinct and different. But unfortunately the third film isn't as strong as its predecessors.
Surely, Glass is undeniably bold, and has plenty of entertaining sequences, with topnotch action scenes. But one of its flaws is that in attempting to combine these two stories into one, the director struggles to mesh together the two moods in an effective fashion, not allowing Glass to develop its own identity.
One could easily see the potential for the series to expand into new storylines, but Shyamalan chose to end it abruptly and somewhat not so satisfying.
