Rian Johnson’s 2022 film, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery proved popular due to the success of the first film in the series, Knives Out. Popularity can also be credited to the film’s accessibility due to its almost direct release on Netflix. Although it’s worth watching, I feel it was a disappointing sequel.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a 2022 mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson, director and writer of Knives Out (2019) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). This film stars Daniel Craig reprising his role as detective Benoit Blanc. He and a large assortment of characters travel to a billionaire’s private island following an invitation for a weekend vacation. Things don’t go as planned after someone is murdered, and Blanc is on the case. Glass Onion has been a success, as netflix subscribers have racked up over 209 million hours of viewership following the first two weeks of its release in December 2022.
This was a solid sequel to Knives Out. It has a great cast, set up and setting. The tropical island with the giant glass onion is a unique and different setting compared to the mansion in the first movie. I hated the Star Wars movie Rian Johnson made due to the weak story and the direction he took the lore and characters. With this movie, I actually enjoyed how he built on Daniel Craig’s character from the first movie and kept a similar tone.
One of the strongest points is the characters. Daniel Craig is great as always, and everyone else in the cast is funny and well fleshed out; each character has something unique and quirky about them. Just like the first film, the cast is made up of well known actors such as Edward Norton, Dave Bautista and Janelle Monáe.
The main negative I have with this movie is the final act of the movie. Without any spoilers, the reveal of the killer was obvious and very anticlimactic. There are a few cool twists earlier in the movie, but once the reveal of the killer occurs, the movie goes way downhill. Everything that occurs after just feels unnecessary. In Knives Out, the ending is very intelligent and has a nice wrap up, where the villain and hero’s story ends in the perfect spot. In Glass Onion, the characters make some stupid choices, and the ending feels underwhelming. It really hurts the overall movie because with a mystery, you want the ending to be satisfying; it’s the most important part of the story. Still, outside of the clunky third act, I enjoyed most of the movie.
Compared to the original, Glass Onion isn’t as good. I just prefer the direction, characters, the structure of the first movie, and of course, the ending. Although, if you like the first Knives Out, this is still a worthwhile watch with some funny moments and interesting twists.
