Reassessing M. Night Shyamalan's Glass After a Year With No MCU
Two years ago this week, the release of Glass signaled the fulfillment of a decades-spanning investigation into our collective superhero obsession. It was poorly received by critics, and didn’t fare much better with fans, but is the film worth revisiting after a year where the MCU wasn’t dominating the superhero conversation? As one of the very few current filmmakers able to draw crowds based largely on name-brand recognition, M. Night Shyamalan’s most interesting and divisive movies – particularly his “Eastrail 177” trilogy, consisting of Unbreakable, Split, and Glass – are all linked by a neat sleight of hand. As with the work of Christopher Nolan or Jordan Peele, mainstream recognition and relevance have resulted from staying one step ahead of audience expectations while also keeping a finger on the ongoing pop culture pulse… even if we didn’t always realize it at the time. It’s fascinating to consider how Shyamalan’s wholly original superhero trilogy, planned in its broad strokes as early as the first film’s conception, not only exists separately from the Marvel Cinematic Universe juggernaut that followed it, but is also inextricably linked to it. Though rendered a mere footnote amid COVID-19’s devastation, experiencing an entire year without a single MCU theatrical release in 2020 only heightens the unique dynamic between the two franchises and raises an intriguing hypothetical: Would Glass have been received differently if it was released after a year-long break from the MCU, rather than during a time where Marvel was at the center of the superhero chatter? [ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/07/20/glass-official-trailer-comic-con-2018″] While each installment of the trilogy opened to mixed reactions (time has been exceedingly kind to Unbreakable and, despite some valid concerns, may be for Split as well), Glass could be the film that, in retrospect, stands to gain the most from comparisons to the MCU. Taking the “Super” Out of “Superhero” Time apart from Marvel’s origin stories makes it clear that the arcs of Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, Stephen Strange, Carol Danvers and more are all variations of a similar theme. The overwhelming focus is on innately gifted people coming to terms with their superhero callings, living up to the potential of their powers, and never looking back. M. Night Shyamalan, however, does the exact opposite by bending the Hero’s Journey to its breaking point. Vigilante “Overseer” David Dunn (Bruce Willis), evil genius Elijah “Mr. Glass” Price (Samuel L. Jackson), and Kevin Wendell “The Horde” Crumb…
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