Disney has Marvel, Warner Bros. has DC, and now Universal has Shyamalan.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2019/01/28/qt3-movie-podcast-glass/
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2019/01/28/qt3-movie-podcast-glass/
Would it be possible for Arnold to stay after the Opsis and discuss the movie?
He does. But that content is only available in the Executive Version of the podcast.
-xtien
“You guys like cartoons. So babyish. I like documentaries.”
Who has a hotter body: Arnold or Spencer Clark Treat?
-Tom
Is that a brand of cat food?
I want to listen to this podcast so badly… But do I have to go see the movie first? Hrrm, I mean, how could it be good? Help!
Honestly it depends how invested you are in the previous two movies. And who of the three of us you’re more likely to track with, as far as movie opinions go. One of us loved it. One of us hated it. And one of us said, “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
I say wait, but I’m a terrible person to be responding to this, since I avoid trailers and marketing like the plague, so YMMV.
-xtien
“I have a new Tenuous Theory. Let’s call it Tenuous Theory Number Two.”
I really wonder who that might be.
I am the same (which allowed me to enjoy John Wick 2 properly two days ago), so I’ll restrain myself, thanks!
Maybe this is addressed later in the podcast, I haven’t quite finished it yet, but since when do superheros or super villains need super powers? I think gadgets and sufficiently brilliant brains also qualify. I mean, just look at Batman and The Joker, right?
Fun fact, we named the stray cats we feed Batman and Joker. They hate each other.
Fair point, but First Name Mister Last Name Glass doesn’t even have gadgets! More to the point, if the idea is that he’s somehow a special “god among men”, what makes him that? How is he the counterpart to a supernaturally indestructible man any more than any other person with his genetic bone disorder?
And while we’re on the topic, Split introduced the idea that people with psychological disorders are more evolved, and sometimes even capable of manifesting that superior evolution physiologically, right? The reveal in Split is that psychological trauma makes one more fit for survival to varying degrees, from James McAvoy’s Beast Mode at one end of the spectrum, to Anya Taylor-Joy’s childhood trauma at the other end. How does this fit into the agenda of the Clover Club or Club Club or whatever that tattoo was? I think it was a club, like on a playing card. Are the other people Betty Buckley was studying – the DID patients who manifested physical transformations – also subjects for the Club Club’s secret program of instilling self-doubt and disbelief among latter day superheroes?
I’m not convinced there are answers to these questions because I suspect the Shymalan Extended Universe is a poorly thought out and laughable mess.
-Tom
Glass is shown as so intelligent and observant that he can effectively predict the future (and manipulate it). That surely qualifies as a super power. But the problem with super-intelligence as a power is that the writer is obviously not as smart as a character is supposed to be. So we end up with things like the utterly moronic ending here. That was the fucking super-genius plan all along? Seriously?
Amen to that.
I’m just gonna post the whole email I wrote to the podcast. It’s longish and contains MAJOR spoilers.
My Email about Glass
Wow, ok, so, Glass. A sequel 19 years removed from its original. Not the longest gap ever (that would be Mary Poppins, with an impressive score of 54 years).
This is one of those movies where I enjoyed it well enough as I was watching it, but I don’t think it is going to age well.
Here is my biggest problem with it:
Unbreakable was cool because it takes place in a world where comic books exist, but superheroes don’t. Our world, in other words. The twist, the reveal, of the whole movie is that Dunn really IS a superhero (well, along with the reveal that Glass is a supervillain). That’s what makes it work; that we slowly come to understand that the world of the movie is not quite our world. (As a side note, most superhero movies don’t acknowledge the existence of comic books, because it opens all kinds of cans of worms; Logan does it in kind of an interesting way).
Split basically works the same way; because we don’t know (unless it’s been spoiled for us) that this takes place in the world of Unbreakable, we don’t know if McAvoy is just crazy or if he really does have superpowers (in addition to being crazy). And then, once we know he does, it’s revealed that this is the world of Unbreakable, so, yes, a world with superpowers.
But in Glass, we already know what world we’re in. We know that at least one superhero and two supervillains exist. So what should the movie be about? We know this is a Shyamalan movie, so we expect some sort of twist, but what should it be?
And this is where I think the movie screws up, because it spends way too much time with Sarah Paulson trying to convince the three characters (and the audience) that maybe there are no superpowers after all. This is dumb for a couple reasons; first of all, McAvoy and Willis already know they have superpowers, they’ve used them. Jackson might not be a supervillain; maybe he’s just really smart and evil, but that’s beside the point. The entire point of Unbreakable is that Glass believes that superheroes are real; his whole life has been spent in search of them. You couldn’t convince him otherwise. And worse than all that, the audience knows superpowers are real because we’ve seen the last two movies.
So the only real twist/reveal is that McAvoy’s supervillain was created in the same train wreck (no pun intended) that created Dunn/Overseer. Which, ok, that’s cool, but I don’t think it is enough for the movie to hang its hat on.
But wait, there’s two more reveals: One, there’s a secret society that prevents superheroes/villains from emerging by convincing them they aren’t super (which is, let’s face it, dumb) or killing them (which you’d expect to be difficult), and this has so far been 100% successful, and kept completely secret. Despite them all having a clearly viewable tattoo and meeting in public restaurants. Ok.
And the last reveal is that Glass made a youtube video that convinced the world that superheroes are real. Because that’s totally what would happen.
So, I think we basically have to come to the conclusion that the script is kinda dumb. What are we left with?
I do like (almost) everyone in this movie. Poor Samuel Jackson almost literally does nothing for the first two-thirds of the movie, but when he does, he’s great. McAvoy does a great job with his multiple personalities, he really dives in and does his best to make us believe it. I like the way he uses a simple jacket to emphasize the differences between his characters. Even Willis is good, even if he isn’t really stretching himself. It was fun to see the kid who plays his son come back and play the same role again. Anya Taylor Joy was good. Sarah Paulson… well, ok, I wasn’t thrilled with her. She didn’t really seem to know what to do with her character.
And it was fun to be in that world again, to see how everything gets tied together. So, worth it, but not great.
I guess I have to mention the fact that all the principals die at the end. What did I think about that? Well, it was a bummer. And in a post-Rogue One world, maybe it’s not as brave as it could have been. But I guess if the series is going to go on, they’ll have to invent new supers, and probably focus on the secret society trying to keep them down. Could be interesting! Could be dumb! Who knows? Maybe they should do a TV series, with a different superhero each episode. It felt a bit like a budget situation, “We don’t want to get into a Robert-Downey-Jr/Iron-Man situation where we have to pay Willis $200 million for the next movie, so let’s just wipe the slate clean”.
Best line of the movie: “Don’t tell him yet.”
Referring to Frank Grillo thrillers as Grillers is brilliant!
Perhaps we will get our second TV series-centric episode ever when Amazon premieres their adaptation of Hanna after the Superbowl?
Wait, that’s when the Hanna TV series starts? Like, next week? Sweet!
-Tom
EDIT: “Full season coming March.” Aww, man. Boo. Who can wait until frickin’ March?
I can’t wait for Mary Poppins 3, where Sarah Paulson goes after the woman who supernaturally levitates over London, interferes with the affairs of normal people, and pulls ridiculously large umbrellas out of a normal-sized carpet bag. How can ordinary humans live in a world where godlike beings like this exist??
Thanks to that one person for representing the seemingly underrepresented group of people who actually enjoyed the movie. And thanks to the other two for hearing him out.
I’m always* rooting for a movie not to suck, while I’m watching and even afterwards. I even liked the staging of that restaurant scene at the end and its placement, even if it underscores why the continuity of these movies was just, um, shattered.
*Except Solo, obvi.
I liked it. That could just be the Anya Taylor Joy effect however I note that I liked the world building. I liked the lack of action which I thought was quite brave considering the market. Everything in the hospital looked great. It was very long but I was never bored - yes it had plot holes ( as Angry Joe said why didn’t He just close his eyes against the light).
Wanted to see ATJ fly though at the end haha.
Too early no coffee must go.
Oh yeah, also I would have loved to see a grown-up Haley Joel Osment at the end in the subway station talking to some girl. “No really, I can see dead people! Yeah it’s kinda like a superpower I guess…”