When it was revealed in the final moments that M. Night Shyamalan's major comeback effort Split was a stealth sequel to Unbreakable, fans went nuts. The 2000 Bruce Willis superhero movie was originally viewed as a letdown after the massive success of The Sixth Sense. But the film's cult has grown steadily in the last 18 years to the point where some people – people who are wrong, but people – rank it as Shyamalan's best film.
So it's pretty remarkable that the sequel to both films, 2019's Glass, is being met with so much hype. I still remember seeing Inception at midnight when it premiered in 2010, and the audience laughed when Shyamalan's name appeared as the writer and producer of the trapped-in-an-elevator frightener Devil. That he's so magnificently turned it around is one of the best recent Hollywood stories.
Glass will see Bruce Willis' David face off against James McAvoy's Kevin, with Samuel L. Jackson's Mr. Glass as the malevolent overseer. You can check out the poster below, and Shyamalan has hinted the first trailer will drop on July 20, the same day the film will have a panel with the cast at San Diego Comic Con.
Glass hits theaters on Friday, January 18.
About Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about.
I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague.
Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work.
In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo.
I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.
