GLASS : Tuesday 22nd January 2019.

'GLASS', which I saw at my local multiplex this week, will doubtless please fans of the 'Unbreakable series' (aka the 'Eastrail 177 Trilogy' following the derailment of the fictitious Eastrail #177 train in the first instalment of this series of now three) of films which launched in 2000 with 'Unbreakable', carried on with 2016's 'Split' and now sees its apparent conclusion with 'Glass'. All three films have been Directed, Written and Co-Produced by M. Night Shyamalan. 'Unbreakable' was made for US$75M and grossed US$248M, while 'Split' was made for just US$9M and grossed US$279M with both films being a critical success too. 'Glass' had a production budget of US$20M, and was released in the US and Australia last week, has so far grossed US$107M and has generated largely mixed or average Reviews. By way of a quick recap however, Samuel L. Jackson's character from 'Unbreakable', Elijah Price is a mass murderer and comic book theorist with Type 1 Brittle Bone Disease and superhuman intelligence. Bruce Willis's character also from 'Unbreakable', David Dunn, is a former college football prodigy turned security guard who possesses superhuman strength, stamina, and invulnerability as well as an extrasensory ability to see the crimes people have committed just by touching them. Dunn is the sole survivor of the Eastrail 177 train journey which killed all 131 other passengers on board, but left him completely unscathed - hence Unbreakable! Dunn turned Price into the authorities after discovering the full extent of his crimes. James McAvoy from 'Split' plays Kevin Wendell Crumb, a former Philadelphia Zoo employee with 23 different personalities whose body chemistry changes with each personality, resulting in a 24th personality known as 'The Beast'.

From 'Unbreakable' Bruce Willis returns as David Dunn and so does Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, aka Mr. Glass. From 'Split' we have James McAvoy, reprising his role as Kevin Wendell Crumb and the other 23 multiple personalities who reside within him, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke, the only captive to survive an encounter with 'The Beast' (Kevin's 24th identity). Following the conclusion of 'Split' and about three weeks after that fact, we find David Dunn and his now adult son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark) working together from the stockroom of David's Security shop to take down criminals whilst also attempting to home in on Kevin Wendell Crumb who has taken four cheerleaders captive somewhere across the city of Philadelphia. Crumb and his numerous persona's now collectively go by the name of 'The Horde', whereas Dunn's exploits have earned him the moniker 'The Overseer' on social media.

One day while out scouring a derelict part of the city, Dunn brushes up against Crumb in his nine year old 'Hedwig' persona, and using his powers of extra sensory perception is able to locate the cheerleaders whereabouts. He frees them, just as Kevin returns in the guise of 'The Beast' and immediately sets upon Dunn. The pair fight, with The Beast surprised at Dunn's strength and resilience. They crash through a window and fall to the ground several storey's below, but are captured by heavily armed Police authorities who escort the pair to the Raven Hill Memorial Psychiatric Hospital for observation and treatment.

Inside the heavily fortified psychiatric hospital, Dunn is placed into a room with powerful showers that will flood his room instantly in the event of an attempted escape, erratic behaviour or anything else that gives cause for concern. This is because Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) the head Doctor in charge of the facility, knows of Dunn's weakness when he is exposed to water. Similarly, The Horde are placed in a room with movement sensitive lights and cameras that flash on an off in an instant, so causing Crumbs multiple personalities to change with each flash of the high intensity bright lights, so effectively disarming The Beast. Staple's chosen field of medical expertise is in working with patients who claim to have special powers, and be superhuman, and to persuade them otherwise.

In the fullness of time, Staple assembles Elijah Price who has been confined to a wheelchair and remains mute and almost motionless the whole time, and who has been a long term resident of the hospital for some years now, with Crumb and Dunn in a room together. Her aim is to evaluate how the three interact with each other and debunk their theories that they are something special and convince them that are just normal human beings who may possess some kind of special skill but nothing extraordinary that can't be learned by anyone else. She also reveals that she has been given just three days to convince the three that they are normal, and if they can't be convinced then they'll have to suffer the consequences of a very long term stay in her facility under constant observation, scrutiny and treatment.

Meanwhile Joseph, Mrs. Price (Elijah's mother, played by Charlayne Woodard) and Casey Cooke all visit the hospital on separate occasions and meet individually with Staple and try to persuade her that Mrs. Price's son, Joseph's Dad, and Casey's former captor all have merits, are simply misunderstood and have good inside them. Staple is however, unconvinced.

The evaluation awakens something in Elijah, giving him the motivation to make his play. One night when the facility is quiet, the care staff are between shifts and otherwise distracted and security is at a minimum, Elijah breaks into The Hordes room wanting to meet with The Beast. After an introduction and time running out before the next care giver starts his shift, Elijah sets up a meeting for the next night, at which he will also see to it that David Dunn is freed too. Upon leaving the room, Crumb asks Elijah what he should call him, to which Elijah turns in his wheelchair and says 'first name Mister, last name Glass'. 

Staple has however, recently extended her comprehensive network of security cameras across the complex, and Elijah's movements were caught on camera. Knowing that he cannot be trusted, having managed to successfully pull the proverbial wool of everyone's eyes for so long, Staple announces to Elijah, (back in his catatonic state) that they are bringing forward to the next day surgery on him to render his alleged superhuman thinking redundant.

The next day, post surgery, Elijah slashes the throat of one of his care givers with a shard of glass taken from a picture hanging in his room. It is also revealed in flashback that Elijah sabotaged the laser device (used in his surgery) the previous evening by removing the lens rendering its power useless. He visits The Horde with the notion of awakening The Beast, with a plan to pitch The Beast against David Dunn in a grand showdown in full view of the media at the grand opening of the city's tallest skyscraper later that same day. Elijah taunts Dunn with his plan, saying that if he doesn't comply he'll destroy the tower and all those inside it. Consequently, Dunn breaks the reinforced steel door down with his third shoulder barge attempt, knocking it clean off its hinges.

Meanwhile, Mr. Glass and Kevin Wendell Crumb are making it out of the hospital using a network of basement tunnels. They are intercepted by several guards, who are quickly dispensed with by The Beast, while Mr. Glass continues to wheel himself out into the open, to be joined by The Beast when his work is done with the guards.

Outside in the hospital grounds, The Beast and David Dunn face off and are pretty evenly matched - The Beast's raw unfettered aggression against anyone and everyone pitched against Dunn's considered unbreakable brute strength and resilience and his unwavering desire to protect those at risk and ultimately use his skills for good.

Staple has by now arrived, as have Mrs. Price, Joseph and Casey Cooke. Armed Police arrive in riot gear. She orders four armed men to fend off The Beast and Dunn but they are no match for the duelling pair and are quickly subdued. Looking on from his wheelchair, Mr. Glass tells The Beast that water is Dunn's weakness, but Joseph comes between them and reveals to The Beast that Elijah orchestrated the train crash that killed Kevin's father, the same train crash from which Elijah came to meet up with Dunn.

In a seemingly moment of clarity, The Beast thanks Mr. Glass for creating him, but also tells him that his purpose was to protect Kevin and therefore he cannot trust Mr. Glass. The Beast breaks Glass' shoulder and punches him severely in the stomach causing him to topple off his wheelchair onto the hard road surface breaking further bones in his brittle body. The Beast then throws Dunn into a water tank and jumps in after him holding him beneath the surface. Despite the effects of the water, Dunn is able to break through the walls of the tank causing a torrent of water to flood the grounds in the immediate vicinity and wash them both out. Dunn survives but has been weakened by his drenching. As The Beast retreats having taunted Dunn to finish off their duel at the new skyscraper, Casey confronts him and coerces Kevin to take control of his body so returning to his normal human state and taking control away from The Beast.

Staple's men then fire on Kevin while he is weak with a single laser pointed gun shot to the stomach. Three others then set upon a now weakened Dunn and begin to drown him in a flooded pothole. Staple lets Dunn touch her as he is drowned, giving him a vision of her participation in a secret society trying to keep the existence of superhumans a secret. Mr. Glass dies of his multiple bone fractures looked over by his weeping mother. Kevin dies of his gunshot wound in the arms of Casey, and Joseph arrives after Dunn was drowned, and is distraught by the death of his superhuman father whom he idolised. Staple promptly wipes clean all the footage from the one hundred or so internal and external security cameras so destroying any and all evidence of superhuman behaviours and what went down earlier that day. She also reports that her mission had been a complete success.

However, what is unknown to Staple, is that all the cameras around the psychiatric hospital had been hacked by Mr. Glass earlier in the day and had been live-streaming that coverage to a private network. Subsequently, Mrs. Price, Joseph, and Casey all receive a copy of the footage. They choose to release that footage to the public at large, and sitting together on a bench in a busy train station, they watch people increasingly accessing their mobile devices to watch the footage so creating an awareness of the existence of superhumans, and before you know it, it makes the primetime television news channels too.

I enjoyed 'Glass' but not nearly a much as I would have hoped. The film meanders in the mid-section, regurgitates old tropes that we have seen before, short delivers on the action and suspense spectacle and the ending is something and nothing and lacks the punch of a grand finale to a trilogy that up until the final few frames of 'Split' nobody saw coming. McAvoy gives a fine turn once again flexing his multi-personality The Horde by switching from one persona to another without missing a beat. This is his film, and it is richer for his performance. As for Jackson - well he really does diddly squat for the first half except stare blankly at the screen in a near comatose state save for the occasional facial twitch; and Willis is the stoic, expressionless die hard character that he has played in a hundred movies. Paulson just keeps on repeating herself, and Taylor-Joy is also underplayed when her back story could have been explored more. There are a few twists and turns in the film, and any levity comes from McAvoy's rapid fire ever changing character voices, mannerisms, quirks and traits which he nails every time. And as for the trademark Shyamalan surprise at the end, well don't hold your breath this time, because when it does eventuate, its not up to the standard of some of his more noteworthy offerings. All that said, I would describe this glass as half full, rather than half empty.

As such, 'Glass' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-