In 2000, M. Night Shyamalan tackled the relatively new genre of real-world comic book filmmaking in Unbreakable. Now, after the success of his thriller film Split, Shyamalan reenters the world of heroes and villains with Glass.

Glass merges the worlds of Unbreakable and Split with gifted characters David Dunn/The Overseeer, Elijah Price/Mr Glass, and Kevin Wendal Crumb/The Hoard played by returning leads Bruce Willis, Samuel L Jackson, and James McAvoy respectively, detained in a mental institution as Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) attempts to convince them that they are not super powered after all.

While Glass doesn’t execute the concept perfectly, the movie earns more wins than fails in my ledger, starting with phenomenal performances from Jackson and McAvoy. Glass lands closer to Shyamalan’s earlier years of narrative jigsaw-puzzling as opposed to the suspense-building he’s become known for. This trade off, however, allows Shyamalan to dig deep into the psyche of his characters as they grapple with themes of faith, mental illness stigma, and vengeance.

With a slow pace, longer than necessary runtime, and one twist too many, there’s many reasons some may be disappointed with Glass. I, however, enjoy the character development, sentimental tone, and clever melding of cinematic properties enough to forgive these flaws. In fact, of the three characters, Glass to me resembles The Overseer most; prone to weakness, but powerful and full of good intentions.

Acting and Casting - 2 | Visual Effects and Editing - 2 | Story and Message - 1 | Entertainment Value - 1 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 2 | Reviewer's Preference - 1 | What does this mean?