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Pethead wrote:Fair enough. I liked her fine in Gilmore Girls. (Yes, I liked Gilmore Girls. Don’t @ me).

Superjuice wrote:

The sequel to M. Night's last universally praised film, Unbreakable, is Glass and it came and gone without much fanfare.  After going through the film and experiencing a sort of 'gauntlet' adventure (the style of the film is lugubrious and brutal at the same time) I can see why it had lackluster appeal. I suppose M. Night considers himself sort of a Kubrick-lite neophyte and wants to bring it to modern audiences.  However, he is not the skilled visionary of said master filmmaker.  His camera lingers on shots unnecessarily and roves very slowly trying to deliver that impactful cinema that Mr. Kubrick littered his opuses with, haunting the viewer for decades to come.  Where Kubrick brought iconic visuals to the culture to be parodied and homage'd to over and over again to go down in history of the cultural lexicon due to their powerful effect.  I don't think Night succeeded in his high aspirations with Glass, but he brought a unique experience to the cinema in the process.

As a comic book movie (which it is supposed to be) I think he tries to bring to life what superheroes and villains would really be like if fleshed out in real life.  There's no 'flash, bang' in the actions scenes that you would expect or that transpire in virtually every big comic book movie released the past 30 years.  He portrays the action as violent and brutal as you might see in the real world.  As such, you tend to look away rather than live vicariously through the hero rooting for him to dispose of the bad guy. 

The bad guy is portrayed by James McAvoy and it is a tour-de-force of sorts since he traverses between 20-some odd personalities, hiding his inner bad-guy, The Beast, who is just a force of uncontrolled violent rage ready to kill anything in his way to satisfy his primal desires.  The case that the movie portrays is a group of captured cheerleaders ready to be dispatched by The Beast whenever that personality reveals itself.  Mr. Bruce, in his trademark raincoat, somehow finds him and saves the cheerleaders whilst getting captured at the same time and put in a mental ward (how this makes any sorta sense will be revealed in the film's conclusion).  This brings us to M. Night's specialty and, heavily criticized, tactic:  the twist, which there are numerous in this film.  However, in this film they aren't as annoying and predictable as some of the other, lesser films he's made and he doesn't just depend on one big twist.  There are multiple of them.

Well, the film is called Glass and you really don't get much of "Mr. Glass" until over an hour into the movie's run-time.  Getting there can be a chore and there's not much action in this comic book movie where most of the setting is in a mental ward, where it's pretty dry to spend hours of a film.  Not exactly the formula for success at the box-office.  Personally I hemmed and hawed at a lot of the dragging dialog and lingering camera shots at the hospital for the mentally ill.  M. Night really thinks he's communicating something important to take up so much of one's time, but it wasn't really necessary.  There's a few moments of suspense, but not enough to hold one's attention.  A lack of deliveries is part of the downside of this film.

What's unique about the film is that it explores tropes and themes of the comic book genre as a whole brings them to life.  The Beast being a caricature of The Hulk and, guess what, Beast from X-men..., trying to free himself of childhood trauma.  Bruce Willis is the reluctant hero who is forced to face his own destiny as the only hope for humanity.  Samuel J as the mad genius with physical defects, who has a diabolical plan which is justified in his own savage mind despite the dependency on committing evil deeds.  It also explores styles of comic book like origin stories.

For all the dragging of the feet and slow pacing of the film, I suppose it gives you something to think about regarding the genre.  And Mr. Night S. gives you something to pick apart regarding the film's core messages, but I'm really not going to give it a 'check it out' to my neighbors or anybody but hardcore comic fans or full-fledged movie nerds.  3 outta 5 stars.  Good attempt.  Very bold of M. Night, but the journey was like going through a gauntlet of over-extended camera takes and unnecessarily deliberated dialog.

Kerrick wrote:^What'd you think of it?  My wife really wants to see it.