David Pierdomenico
To describe the career of M. Night Shyamalan as a roller coaster would be a gross understatement. No other director has achieved such acclaim, only to lose all credibility, then miraculously return to prestige once again (more on that here). It’s been quite an amazing journey. And his recent comeback into fame has everything to do with revisiting one of his classics from nearly 20 years ago.
The Pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe Era
The year 2000 was a very different time for the cinematic landscape. Period pieces like Gladiator, Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, and Shakespeare in Love had been winning all the Oscars, as well as dominating the box office. And The Matrix was revolutionizing science fiction as we knew it. But as far as superheroes and comic book films, they were nowhere near what they are today. Sure, the first X-Men was released in 2000, but the boom didn’t really occur until after Spider-Man two years later. So when M. Night Shyamalan, hot off the success of The Sixth Sense, wanted to make Unbreakable, he couldn’t style it like a superhero story.
Rather, Unbreakable was so compelling because it felt so real. There were no colorful costumes (except for David Dunn’s green poncho and the Orange Man’s jumpsuit), or gross display of superpowers. Instead, everything had to be subtle. Shyamalan only showed us glimpses here and there of Dunn’s supernatural potential. We didn’t actually see him in the train crash because showing mass carnage and sharp objects bouncing off of him would have immediately robbed the film of its ability to be taken seriously.
Returning to His Roots
As we all know, critics were not so kind to Shyamalan between Lady in the Water and After Earth. He first began his comeback with The Visit in 2015, but it was solidified by Split in 2017. In an interview for the film, Shyamalan revealed that having children made him want to focus on more family-oriented stories (such as The Last Airbender and After Earth), but that once his kids were grown, he started thinking more about the world he had created with Unbreakable, and the potential the rest of the story had.
Clearly this was the right move, as it immediately gained him acclaim once more. But with the comic book genre being what it was in 2017, it allowed for Split to delve even deeper into the world of the supernatural. Here, we saw “The Beast” climbing on walls and suffer a mere bloody bruise after being hit by a shotgun blast. The whole film was of course meant to be the second act in Shyamalan’s original Unbreakable script. This leads us now into perhaps the most anticipated film of his career: Glass.
The Cinematic Universe Formula
Audiences have seen cinematic versions of Wonder Woman, Ant-Man, and even Aquaman! They’ve seen all of Marvel converge together for Avengers: Infinity War. Now more than ever, fans are craving the kinds of films that would have been virtually unheard of back in 2000, and as a result we’re ready for a crossover event like Glass. Much like Marvel, Shyamalan put in his time and gave us two films to introduce our three main characters.
Neither one of them ever felt like they were trying to force a sequel or a crossover to happen either (take notes DC!). For many, part of the excitement of this new film is to see how Mr. Glass and David Dunn interact with Kevin Wendell Crumb, as well as his many other personalities. It’s captured the same wonder and fascination that the original Avengers film did by showing us characters we already know and love interacting with one another. And with a budget of just $20 million, Glass stands to have a much higher profit margin than any Marvel film ever made!
More than anything else however, this film as an opportunity for M. Night Shyamalan himself. As previously mentioned, not all of his work has been well received but one constant is that most critics and fans loved the the first two parts of this trilogy. If he can pull off this finale just right, it will complete his return to greatness forever!
