Glass reviews round-up: What the critics are saying about the Unbreakable and Split sequel

M Night Shyamalan's ambitious follow-up is getting a mixed response

The first reviews for Glass – M Night Shyamalan’s sequel to Unbreakable and Split – are finally in.

The film director is hoping to shatter (sorry) his personal box office record with the upcoming follow-up. The two superhero films that were only revealed to share the same fictional universe in Split’s final moments, when Bruce Willis made a surprise appearance.

Glass reunites Willis and Samuel L Jackson, and brings in Split stars James McAvoy, whose character Kevin Wendell Crumb boasts 24 personalities, and Anya Taylor-Joy. Sarah Paulson also stars.

You can find a roundup of what the critics are saying about Glass below.

IndieWire – David Ehrlich – C-

This was supposed to be Shyamalan’s greatest triumph — the coup de grâce of the long comeback saga that he’s been living for most of the 21st century. Instead, this lugubrious slog only sharpens the feeling that he’s too raw and reactionary for his own good — that he’s grown too invested in his own story to tell any others with the patience, discipline, and power that defined his first hits.

Empire – Nick De Semlyen – three stars

Where Unbreakable was a smart, simmering deconstruction of comic-book tropes, Glass veers towards the heavy-handed, with characters disseminating his ideas through clumsy dialogue. And the eventful last 20 minutes offers both big moments that are confident, surprising and thought-provoking, and a flurry of laughably ridiculous twists.

Variety – Owen Gleiberman

The movie, watchable as it is, is still a disappointment, because it extends and belabours the conceits of Unbreakable without the sensation of mystical dark discovery that made that film indelible. Glass is a sequel that feels more dutiful than necessary. It turns the earlier film’s ominous pop poetry into over-explicit blockbuster prose.

Digital Spy – Ian Sandwell – four stars

Glass offers a unique, surprising and meta take on the well-trodden superhero genre – and the wider comic book world – that will thrill fans and newcomers alike.

The Hollywood Reporter – John DeFore

Like Unbreakable and Split, Glass wants its extraordinary feats to be as grounded as possible in the real world. The tension between wish-fulfillment heroics and realism was tantalizing in Unbreakable. Here, it’s more confused. Those of us who have steered clear of gossip sites or promotional interviews may find ourselves not certain what we have seen

Glass arrives in UK cinemas on 18 January