Is super power real? Or is it just a suggestion that is believed by people who feel themselves superheroes? Excessive obsession can sometimes create delusions. And this is one of the points of Glass, the closing film of M Night Shyamalan’s “realistic superhero” trilogy. An interesting concept because he made a contemplative approach to a very fantasy subgenre. What if it turns out Superman’s flying ability is just an imagination at the head of Clark Kent?
This film is intended as the culmination of Shyamalan’s Unbreakable film which was released in 2000 and Split, another film that makes us shocked by the ending which suggests that the two films are in the same universe. David Dunn (Bruce Willis) will eventually face Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), where Mr. Glass (Samuel L Jackson) is in the middle of a conflict. The previous two films show us three super-powers. On Unbreakable, David managed to deal with the evil plans of the genius Mr. Glass thanks to his “unbreakable” strength. In Split, we witness that one of Kevin’s two dozen personalities gives him the ability to climb walls.
But Glass tries to undo everything; trying to twist everything we know. That these super individuals are actually not super individuals, but only crazy people with great imagination. “This is a specific kind of delusion,” said Dr. Ellie (Sarah Paulson). Yeah, then what do we watch in the previous two films ! He explained it with a special method that is usually used by a boyfriend when he is walking along with other people: at length and complexity, so we know right away that it is just missing.
This is what makes Glass fail spectacularly. Glass is a boring film for new audiences and old audiences. The new audience will be confused because this film is very dependent on the previous film. While the old audience did not get anything new other than what they got from the previous film, because Shyamalan did not develop a story from the foundation he had made but only fed us with old songs. The impression, Shyamalan had no story and could not find a way to connect his films.