Review: Glass

I love Glass.

This is a movie that combines entertaining and captivating cinema, amazing direction and cinematography, and a deeply personal message. M. Night Shyamalan’s twist in this movie isn’t the ending (which I won’t spoil) as much as it is his ability to send a powerful message from a hugely anticipated blockbuster movie such as this.

Right from the very start, you will notice that Shyamalan is very interested in showing off his directing chops. He always uses the camera to tell his stories, as he does in Split, but here in Glass, it seems like he is more interested than normal in finding creative ways to communicate to his audience visually. The most poignant example of this comes from a tracking shot on Mr. Glass himself as he wheels down a hallway with The Beast fighting guards in the unfocused background. Shyamalan is interested in what this all means for the character at that time, instead of what could be a typical action scene.

That is precisely where this film finds its strength: it, like its predecessor Unbreakable, focuses on character more than anything else. It deconstructs the thinking of these three main characters and makes you question what is really going on. Furthermore, its extremely contained setting allows this to happen. Almost all of the movie takes place in one location. There isn’t any room for massive scope or crazy battle scenes, because the film isn’t interested in those things. It is interested in deeply and critically exploring the conceptions and thoughts that people have about themselves.

For the sake of limiting spoilers, I won’t get into the main message that the movie sends (scroll past the trailer if you want to read spoilers), but suffice it to say, it goes somewhere unexpected. It asks, who is a superhero and what does being a superhero mean? Who has the “powers” and where did they come from? Glass explores topics much deeper than are to be expected from a movie like this, and for that, it deserves high praise.

Spoiler talk!

I loved that this movie is basically saying, “Believe in yourself and you will be able to do so much more than you realized.” When David and Kevin begin to believe that their abilities are all in their head, they can’t use said powers. But once they begin to believe in themselves and their abilities again, they do what they are capable of. Forget the fact that they are real superheroes and have these powers. That is an incredible message. You have it in you to do what you set your mind to. All that’s left is for you to actually go out and do it.

Have you seen Glass? If you have, let me know what you thought on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook!

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