Glass is the third film, joining Unbreakable and Split to form the Eastrail 177 Trilogy. The trilogy comes from the creative mind of M. Night Shyamalan who write, directs and even makes a cameo in the film. We also see Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson return to their roles of David Dunn and Elijah Price. James McAvoy also returns to his role, or should I say ‘roles’, as Kevin Crumb and his 24 personalities.
The film takes place shortly after the events of Split, where we see Dunn with the help of his son, on the hunt to track down Crumb, who has kidnapped 4 cheerleaders for feed to “The Beast”. When Dunn eventually tracks Crumb down, they are soon captured by Dr. Ellie Staple who takes them into custody at a mental hospital. The same facility that Price has been held in since the end of Unbreakable.
Staple’s goal is to convince the three that they are just normal human beings without super powers, which proves to be harder than she thinks. With Dunn close to believing, the whole thing comes crashing down thanks to the secret plan of Price and we discover the link between the three is closer than we first thought.
I found the film to be quite good. Yes, it is a superhero film, but it was refreshing to see one that doesn’t follow the same old formula. Glass focuses on the superhero characters and not the big world ending disasters that they must avert. The film kept me guessing, as M. Night Shyamalan usually does, and that I really enjoyed.
As for the acting, there’s one great stand out, James McAvoy nails his characters, changes so quickly from one to the other, it’s fantastic. Not just his voice, but his whole expression and demeanor. Samuel L. Jackson‘s portrayal of a drugged up and sedated Price is also quite good and Bruce Willis is well… Bruce Willis.
But an important question is: “Does the film stand alone or should you watch the first two?” Although I’m sure that you can still see this film without watching the two previous installments in the trilogy (as you can still get the gist of the story, with the film touching a little on each character’s past), I personally feel it is best you watch the first two films prior to watching Glass, as you will have a greater understanding of the characters and events leading into the film.