Tropic Sprockets / Glass

By Ian Brockway

 

M. Night Shyamalan’s comic book streak continues with “Glass,” presumably the last act in a set of superhero films featuring curious characters with extraordinary abilities. Shyamalan is hitting his stride here with an engaging matinee feature that is fun to watch while munching popcorn. Though logically it does not make sense, it isn’t supposed to. This is a Gothic-laced cartoon that has a spirit and a bit of philosophy along the way.

David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is a vigilante. He walks the streets in a green rain slicker, searching for people who act badly. He does not use physical force unless there is no other way.

Meanwhile Kevin (James McAvoy) has imprisoned several girls in a warehouse. He is a killer with 23 separate personalities and he has desires to speak for the “broken” — the disenfranchised, the meek or those said to be freakish with other superpowers.

Enter Dr. Staple (Sarah Paulson) who gets these men into a psychiatric hospital, striving to study and make them normal. She is an expert on delusions of grandeur and thinks these people are not super at all but merely neurotics with powerful minds.

Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) is also here with extremely fragile bones but able to influence others via psychic power.

Dunn knows well that something bad is about to happen and charges through a huge steel door.

A showdown begins.

This is a hybrid of previous Shyamalan films, notably “Split” (which felt silly and confusing) and “Unbreakable” (the better of the two with an eerie Twilight Zone feel). The action is entertaining with momentum that builds, though without much of a surprise. The principal actors (Willis, McAvoy and Jackson) reprise their roles well and the story is not a bore.

The most intriguing element is the film’s position that anyone can have superpowers if they are allowed to access their full human potential.

M. Night Shyamalan cares about these characters and he envisions a world in the here and now where superheroes mix with mortals, contributing to daily life in diverse and exciting ways. The story would benefit from exploring this thoughtful condition more thoroughly.

Still, as is, “Glass” makes a good escape and if you like your thrills to have Libertarian concerns, all the better.

Write Ian at [email protected]

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