Review | Glass film review: M Night Shyamalan bridges Unbreakable and Split with disappointing sequel
- Shyamalan’s origin story has a good premise, but fails to live up to its potential
- The plot and some of the characters seem less original and exciting
 (1).JPG?itok=0BHk6odg&v=1665981271)
2.5/5 stars
At the end of M Night Shyamalan’s last film Split, the camera cut to Bruce Willis in a bar, watching a news report.
Film review: Split – James McAvoy stars as creepy mental patient
Boom. Two worlds collapsed into one, as Shyamalan fused Split, with its story of multiple personality sufferer Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), with that of Unbreakable, released back in 2000, and starring Willis and Samuel L. Jackson as two men who believe they posses abilities far beyond the norm.
It was a neat twist from Shyamalan, a director who has traded his entire career on cinematic sleight-of-hand, giving him the chance to resurrect Willis and Jackson’s characters. So now we have Glass, a reference to Jackson’s villainous Elijah Price, a man born with brittle-born disease who has suffered 94 breaks in his life.
Price is now held up in a psychiatric institute, seemingly catatonic. Meanwhile, Willis’ David Dunn, the only one to survive a devastating train crash all those years ago, sells security equipment in downtown Philadelphia.
When the story opens, Dunn is patrolling the streets of Philadelphia in a hooded raincoat – known to all as The Overseer – as he uses his perceived skills to hunt for ‘The Beast’, the most violent of Kevin’s 24 personalities, who has taken four high-school girls hostage.
But when he tracks him down and rescues the girls, he and ‘The Beast’ are caught by the authorities, and taken to the same institution holding Price. In charge of their treatment is Dr Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), desperate to prove that these men are all delusional.
There’s also room for Split’s Anya Taylor-Joy to return as Casey, the only girl ‘The Beast’ ever let go, while Spencer Treat Clark makes an impression as David’s son Joseph, who fully buys into the myth that his father is a superhero. As Elijah says, “This is an origin story”, and Shyamalan is keen to examine the psychological damage passed from parents to their offspring.
Back then, Unbreakable felt fresh, a tale that took comic books seriously before Hollywood became obsessed with adapting them. Now, perhaps, it feels less original.
Death Wish film review: Bruce Willis exacts vigilante justice in sadistically violent thriller
The same goes for McAvoy’s multiple characters, from the nine-year-old Hedwig to the dainty Patricia, which felt more electrifying in Split. Nor does Glass quite offer the climactic showdown it promises with this trio of intriguing characters. Bringing them back was a good idea, but this reunion isn’t quite the story they deserve.
