Glass is not the superhero movie the trailers sold you. Good.
David Dunn finally corners Kevin Wendell Crumb, the man with 24 personalities from Split. Before their fight can get going, both get locked in a mental hospital. Down the hall sits Elijah Price from Unbreakable, silent and barely moving. Then Sarah Paulson arrives as a doctor with one goal: convince all three they’re ordinary men with some very wrong ideas about themselves.
James McAvoy is unreal again. He jumps from Hedwig to Dennis to Patricia to the Beast in a single shot, sometimes a single sentence, and you always know who’s talking. Hedwig still gets laughs, but there’s sadness underneath now. When Kevin himself finally breaks through, it hurts.
Bruce Willis plays it quiet. Maybe too quiet for some. Samuel L. Jackson is the one who matters. He spends much of the movie just sitting there, and you still can’t look away.
Yes, the middle drags. It’s mostly people in a room talking about comic books. If you came for the nonstop tension of Split, you might get restless. I didn’t. The talking is the point.
As for the big showdown you’re bracing for, the movie skips it. That’s on purpose. Elijah has been playing a different game all along, and one line near the end snaps the whole trilogy into place. Pure Shyamalan.
It’s weird, divisive, and a lot. I love that he made it this way anyway.
Watch Unbreakable and Split first, then go in with an open mind. If you want a superhero movie that would rather think than punch, don’t miss this one.
