M. Night’s focus as a director is fine, but his scriptwriting effort here is full of some pretty awful dialogue, which seeps into the performances on multiple occasions, causing them to come off a bit stilted — but that aspect sort of contributes to the film’s odd rhythmic nature. It’s really the twisty late game, a-ha! narrative play that shoots what would be an otherwise sturdy January release right in the foot.

Shyamalan leaves the story open for a potential continuation; however, considering what kind of taste the ending leaves in your mouth, you may not be interested in seeing what Shyamalan has up his sleeve next (although, given the amount of revenue Glass has raked in, a studio would probably open that door, which means that we’ll now have a mediocre alternate comic book universe to fall back on when the others become too cumbersome — yay us!).

The other peculiar thing about Glass is that Samuel L. Jackson is a backseat driver to his own film, which is kind of interesting given how he character nefariously operates in the shadows, but it would have been nice to see him be given more screen time. The film is essentially a James McAvoy vehicle and an excuse to have him play many many characters, which he’s incredible at. McAvoy is phenomenal here, and he weaves in and out of different personalities in such a gracefully convincing manner. Sam Jackson is understated and mostly effective in his performance, but doesn’t produce the type of quality worth raving over. Bruce Willis gives a very Bruce Willis performance that falls in between “I don’t want to be here” and “I kinda care.” Sarah Paulson ends up playing a larger role here than the trailers lead on, which could’ve made a bigger splash if it were handled with a bit more finesse.