Unbreakable, Split, Glass

Let's talk about M. Night Shyamalan for a minute. I don't know of a director who has received more unwarranted insults, bad mouthing, and criticism than M. Night Shyamalan has. It's some sort of weird obsession film reviewers have to criticize his entire backlog at every opportunity. I can't explain it. Whenever I hear that M. Night is coming out with a new film, I'm excited in the same way when I hear names like Darren Aronofsky‎, Steve McQueen, Christopher Nolan or Ana Lily Amirpour are releasing a new film - I can't bloody wait to see it! For me, Shyamalan is much like De Palma, a student of Hitchcock, who is the master of suspense. M. Night knows where to put the camera, he knows how to create tension. This doesn't mean I have loved everything he has done. There have been slips. But why go on and on about them? I didn't like Nolan's Dunkirk, but when Nolan comes out with a new film, I'll be there in a heartbeat. Same goes for M. Night Shyamalan. He is a director I want to watch.

Reviewers piss all over M. Night's twist endings too. Can't the same mockery be made about Christopher Nolan's films - think Memento, The Prestige, Inception, and Interstellar, they all end with a twist. But nobody is speaking disparagingly about Nolan, not like they do about Shyamalan. I believe M. Night Shyamalan has been unfairly treated and he deserves your time as a movie goer. You should be watching his films, because most of the time, they are good (The Happening, The Visit) and some of them are great (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Split).

So, let's get to M. Night Shyamalan's comic book masterpiece of Unbreakable, Split, and Glass(BTW, Nolan has one of these too and Batman Begins is the weakest of the three in my opinion, but it might be the third, and of course the second is his masterpiece).

1.Unbreakable

Shyamalan's second Hollywood film, is just as good as his first; that being The Sixth Sense. I think there is an argument to be made that Unbreakable might even be better because you can watch Unbreakable multiple times, whereas The Sixth Sense is a special kind of one trick pony (although I recently re-watched it with my kids and after such a long time between viewings, I loved it almost as much). Don't listen to anyone bad mouthing Unbreakable, just watch it if you haven't already. And if you haven't seen it in a while, time to see it again, because it holds up over time.

2. Split

Split is the Godfather II of the series. I absolutely loved it from the opening shot right to the end. In fact I have re-watched the opening five minutes of this film several times. It's the open shot of Anya Taylor-Joy sitting alone in a crowded restaurant, muted, and different; we all know something awful is about to happen. It's riveting stuff.
This is James McAvoy's film. He plays a man with 23 personalities and a 24th is about to reveal itself. James McAvoy was so good I thought he was deserving of an Oscar nomination - he didn't get it.
Split had me on the edge of my seat the entire movie and it's one of my favourite films of 2016. "I have red socks." 

3. Glass

It's hard to stick the landing. The Godfather III, Back to the Future III, Return of the Jedi, Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome, The Matrix Revolutions, to name a whole bunch of films that wobbled and fell trying to land the trilogy. All of these films had great starts. Great starts and in some cases, even better sequels (The Godfather II, The Empire Strikes Back, Split).
Glass is worth your time if only to see James McAvoy do it again (although it's not as much fun as the first time). What's really fun is M. Night's super hero fight sequences. This isn't Marvel stuff where nobody really gets hurt and it's just noise and explosions and you sit there bored to tears. When James McAvoy and Bruce Willis fight, it feels like a gritty bar fight, where someone might actually get seriously hurt. It's refreshing.
Glass may be the weakest of the three, but should you see it? Absolutely. Make sure to see Unbreakable and Split first.