Glass an awkward step back for Shyamalan

James McAvoy in Glass. Image courtesy Universal Pictures.

Perhaps 10 years ago or so Glass would be more innovative and interesting than it is. A movie dedicated in large part to deconstructing superhero mythology was novel when writer/director M. Night Shyamalan first started playing with the idea with Unbreakable, but the influx of comic book movies and the need to analyze the genre has produced better versions of Shyamalan's newest movie, Glass. This, instead, feels like an amalgamation of ideas Shyamalan himself has already delved into in this very franchise, undercutting any sense of profundity he aimed for.

Officially the third film in the Unbreakable franchise, Glass connects the characters from the first film – Bruce Willis' heroic David Dunn and Samuel L. Jackson's Elijah Price/Mr. Glass – with the villain from Split, the multi-personality plagued Kevin (James McAvoy, still great in this role). The three of them are gathered together in an asylum under the watch of Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), who believes their powers are actually delusions they've conjured to compensate for traumatic pasts. Dr. Staple has three days to work through their issues and ensure them their lives are normal. As the three men debate their existence, David's son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), Mr. Glass' mom (Charlayne Woodard), and Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy), who survived the first attack from the Beast, ask their own questions about the lives of their families and friends.

What remains somewhat unclear with Glass is the need to go backward with the origin stories. Both Unbreakable and Split dedicated significant parts of their films to answering questions about their characters' abilities. David has to overcome his own self-doubt about his abilities again, despite spending 19 years as an underground superhero. Kevin/Patricia/Hedwig et al already witnessed the arrival of the Beast and have spent two years kidnapping and killing girls in the greater Philadelphia area. They are established heroes and villains, capable of performing outlandish and beyond-human feats of strength, endurance, and invulnerability. By adding doubt only to eventually overcome that doubt, it shows Shyamalan didn't quite know how to go forward with the universe he developed.

 

It is additionally frustrating how poorly Shyamalan soul searches through his franchise. The premise of having three days to treat two serial killers and a violent vigilante is laughable in and of itself, and Glass does little to elevate it into something interesting. Even the one moment of highest intensity, the group therapy session with Dr. Staple, David, Kevin, and Elijah, lacks inspiration and tension. Dr. Staple's psychological skills are unconvincing, especially given how much David, Kevin, and Elijah have come through to discover their powers. The film can't really sell it's own disbelief, which reinforces the lack of point or direction for this entire endeavor.

Then there's the twist, because every Shyamalan movie has a twist. The twist in Glass is designed to add perspective and depth to this cinematic universe, but is on par with the events of films two, four, five, and six of the Halloween franchise. The swerve is handled awkwardly with insufficient foreshadowing, which is followed by yet another twist that is even weaker than the first twist. Shyamalan somehow adds too much foreshadowing and does too little of it, providing a rather frustrating ending just when the film was gaining a little momentum.

 

The ending underlines what how frustrating Shyamalan is as a filmmaker. He still is a pretty solid director; Glass generally looks good, with a creepy aesthetic that works really well for what the film has going for it. Shyamalan also has a knack for discomfiting viewers with subtle visual cues in lieu of jump scares, giving viewers enough of a heads up to remain freaked out about the ensuing moment. But whatever talents he has as a director, Shyamalan still cannot get out of his own way as a writer. The dialog, as always, is a mess. The twist on top of the twist is spurred by an out-of-character moment and some awful exposition. How that final twist is executed makes zero sense given the nature of the first twist. The questions Glass leaves are less philosophical than impractical, which is about the expectation for an M. Night Shyamalan film.

Review: Two out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 129 minutes

Genre: Drama

tl;dr

What Worked: James McAvoy, directing.

What Fell Short: Ending, dialog, writing.

What To Instead: Unbreakable

Little fear, good writing to be found in Escape Room

Taylor Russell in Escape Room. Image courtesy Columbia Pictures.

The only thing Escape Room kind of has going for it is its premise. Throwing confused people into a confined space and ramping up the danger is a simple yet elegant idea for a horror movie, ripe for social commentary and some rather gruesome deaths. But having a good idea is not nearly enough to carry a film, as is the case with Escape Room, as even the best ideas need a modicum of both good writing and filmmaking talent to succeed.

Again, at least Escape Room has a nice little premise to build from. Six strangers are coaxed into an escape room with the promise of a $10,000 reward for the winner. Each participant has their own reason for signing up for the strange game. One is a brilliant but shy college student (Taylor Russell). One is a weary veteran (Deborah Ann Woll). One is a ruthless businessman (Jay Ellis). One is an alcoholic grocer (Logan Miller). One is an amiable trucker (Tyler Labine). And one happens to be an escape room dork (Nik Dodani). Once the door closes the game begins, the players soon realize the puzzles are more lethal than the average game. Can they overcome their disparate backgrounds and make it through each level of the game?

Again, this is a pretty solid idea for a movie. Escape Room has the right ingredients for both physical horror and sociological terror, with the dangers of the rooms and the fraught relationships combining to bring out the worst in the players. A good version of this movie should bother people, make them uncomfortable and at least a little squeamish. Escape Room isn't a case of missed opportunity or lost potential, but at the least it wasn't doomed for failure.

So why doesn't Escape Room offer up some scares or discomfort? Aside from a PG-13 rating the filmmakers can't seem to work around, it's the writing that is at fault. This type of film requires some terrific writing to provoke ill feelings and build atmosphere, and the script by Bragi Schut and Maria Melnik doesn't provide the necessary quality. There are certainly little things at issue, like clunky dialog and thin characterizations, but the real problems are the notable structural issues that can be seen from the beginning. Instead of opening on the players meeting one another, the movie actually starts toward the end of the order of events and then goes back three days to introduce half of the players. It's unclear what is actually gained from starting with an intense moment before moving away from it, but what is lost is a sense of disorientation for the viewer. For a movie like Escape Room to get some reaction from viewers, it needs to confuse them to the same degree as it confuses the characters. Starting in the first room with little explanation of what is happening would make that confusion palpable, but starting from the end before going back to the beginning introduces a safe environment that isn't necessary. That the movie uses flashback as often as it does as a storytelling technique is all the more bizarre, as it shows the entire movie could have occurred within the walls of the building.

Escape Room doesn't gain much traction in act two – the flashbacks are more distracting than they are interesting – but any suspense or chills developed in that act are wiped away with the film's disastrous finale. Escape Room's need to explain the puzzle – the who and the why – results in some risible explanations and some Nilbog-esque revelations. The movie teeters on the edge of silly and dumb as it stumbles toward the ending, throwing in the worst of its dialog and the most illogical choices from its characters. This, again, is an issue with the writing, as it indicates a lack of confidence in either the storytelling or is an insult to the audience's intelligence. A good mystery is way more interesting than an exposition-filled ending, especially when the explanation is as convoluted and asinine as Escape Room's.

Review: One and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 100 minutes

Genre: Suspense

tl;dr

What Worked: Premise

What Fell Short: Writing, Ending, Acting

What To Instead: Saw, Cube