In 2000 M. Night Shyamalan created a masterpiece that polarized critics and audiences alike, especially with the ending.
Fast forward to 2019, where 19 years later he closes the chapter of his trilogy with yet another polarizing ending ... and I dig it…let's dig in...
In 2000 when Unbreakable came out; comic book movies where not that big… the first X-Men movie had just came out 6 months before, most folks were not aware of who Tony Stark is? Or what an Ant-Man does… but Shyamalan created a movie that had more in common with Watchmen than Superman or Thor, where he asked the question: what if comic book heroes where real? He was already deconstructing Superheroes before DCEU had been thought of.
So all these ideas around comic book as mythlogy, heroes in a real world are all scrutinized to their logical conclusion in Glass… How would our world perceive villains and heroes if they existed in it? Then he adds a complexity of what makes one a hero; is it about perceiving oneself as a hero that makes you the hero/villain? Or would you need to have something lose in the membrane for one to actually believe that they're a superhero or an evil mastermind?
Shyamalan’s superhero movies have more in common with Watchmen or Elsewhere titles, whereby the comics interrogate a single idea that you won’t find in the mainstream titles. They tend to be more grittier,more true to life and more unsettling.
Glass has more in common with the Elsewhwere title of Red Son; the Superman Comic book where Superman lands in the USSR instead of the US as a baby and that reshapes who he is.Which inadvertly comments on who Superman is and what he means by changing his context.Glass also becomes a comment on comic book movies of today and how generic they are becoming.
It’s heady stuff that Shyamalan is not afraid to go into…it helps that he has a magnificent cast in the Likes of Samuel L. Jackson (who retains the mentor-trained villain arc), James McAvoy continues to chew the screen as the Man with 24 identities (and he pulls them off).
Then there’s old Bruce Willis, who does the Bruce Willis tough guy... the only way Bruce Willis was supposed too.And it works.
Anya Taylor-Joy shows a happier, well adjusted side from the traumatized girl from Split.A role she can do in her sleep.Thats how talented she is.Sarah Paulson gives her doctor a true sense of tragedy and empathy.so we are spoiled here when it comes to talent on screen.
The 19 years break between the first movie and the closing movie in the trilogy helped the film to do something extra special like in the movie Boyhood, where you get to see supporting cast like David Dunn’s son Joseph (played by Spencer Treat Clark) and Mister Glass’s mom (Charlayne Woodard) reprise their original roles too, so they have also aged in that time.
The movie has some kind of great pathos to see the young kid who used to believe in his dad, who didn’t believe in himself, now playing the man in the chair for his old man. But the man of the hour must be Shyamalan.
Dude mortgaged his own house to raise funding for the movie and he got Disney and Universal to agree to a co-production deal (Universal owned Split and Disney Unbreakable ; a co-production between these two is unheard of when it comes to movies but he got it done).
He was able to stick to his convictions and create a movie that will infuriate those who actually bought into the idea that Thanos' finger snap meant there's no way the guys will come back.
In a world where DC is ditching deconstructing its heroes while trying to appeal to the spectacle and to humour fanboy crowd, Shyamalan made a movie that plays with audience expectations and refuses to confirm to them.
He gives you comic staples such as characters having their own colours, good vs evil but also pulls the rug on you just when you least expect it... I call it one of the best movies of 2019…and it sets the bar very high for the rest of the year but thats depends on what sort of viewer you are.
It felt like: If Alan Moore made a superhero movie in today's time.
Fun Trivia: Smauel L. Jackson is actually 5 years older than the lady who pays his mom Charlayne Woodard.
Rating
****
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Index
*Trash ** Ja nee ***Ya zama-nyana ****We are vooking with gas *****Instant Classic