Confused and inconclusive

Johnson Thomas

M. Night Shyamalan has not been on a song lately, and that’s been a huge disappointment for his legion of fans who expect something big every time a new film releases. Glass is no different from his latter disasters – other than the fact that it’s far more ambitious and does a whole lot more than just rumble around the sci-fi territory. It may not be a return to form (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs) but it certainly looks like he is getting back his touch gradually.

The post-credit sequence from Split heralded his intent to have his original characters inhabit and share the Marvel and DC comic book universe. Glass is that effort. But Shyamalan gets the structural balance all wrong here. His efforts to belabour a mythology befitting his characters, takes away from the movement, enjoyment and excitement of what could have been far more intensely engaging and entertaining. The result is a film that takes longish rest stops to illuminate themes that seem meaningless even though he does everything to make it seem important.

You may look at Glass as a tongue-in-cheek denouement of the superhero franchise – at least that’s what it seemed like in the beginning.  Superhero David Dunn (Bruce Willis) starts off the action against split-persona The Horde (James McAvoy) but a few minutes later we are confronted with the fact that they are delusional patients in a mental institution which also houses Mr Glass (Samuel L Jackson) - headed by Dr. Staple (Sarah Paulson). 

The three together seem so out of it that it’s sacrilegious. With no sparks flying, there’s very little action and a whole lot of exposition - that leaves you feeling incredulous most of the time.

The confrontation finally does arrive, but it is so lacklustre that it seems like a last minute rush-job. And there’s that trademark Shyamalan twist too – which feels even more off altogether. The audience is likely to feel entirely put out by these lame shenanigans. 

James McAvoy is brilliant as usual, Jackson wakes up a little too late to make any difference,  Spencer Treat Clark reprises his role as Willis's son Joseph, 19 years after first portraying him as a kid, and Bruce Willis doesn’t make any waves. All those psychological underpinnings regarding superheroes could have amounted to much more if only the final act was cohesive and lucid enough for a strong payoff. It’s Shyamalan’s self-indulgence that keeps us disengaged from this work for the large part!