Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Review – A Worthy Sequel!

Glass Onion is a worthy sequel to Knives Out (2019), improving on some things, but it’s still missing something to make it better than the first. The film follows Miles Bron, played by Edward Norton, a tech billionaire, who invites his old college friends to his serene private island for a fun murder mystery weekend getaway. When an actual murder surfaces, the group of friends must put their trust in detective Benoit Blanc to try and solve this murder and discover who the killer is.

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When Knives Out came out in 2019, the thing that most attracted people was the overall storyline. Not many murder mysteries released in recent years, so it was a shock to finally get one that was very well done. That trend continues here with Glass Onion. Even if the story might feel a bit more clunky, when it comes to the mystery element, this movie knocks it out of the park. Rian Johnson, the writer-director, cleverly wrote the story to confuse the audience and not know who the murderer might be.

Unlike in Knives Out, where the clues are obvious and easy to figure out, Glass Onion cleverly makes those hints subtle so even the sharpest-eyed person can’t figure it out. This, to me, is what makes this story so thrilling. It makes you want to rewatch it to see if you can pick up on those subtle hints you missed the first time around. Of course, there are a few details which you can figure out what their involvement is for or mentioned later on.

The plot twists in Glass Onion are also well done but are what makes this movie feel clunky. The twist causes the storyline to come to a screeching halt to properly explain it and how it ties into everything. Once we realize the actual mystery, Rian Johnson took a while to get the movie back on track to the ongoing original story. This isn’t the only part that makes the film feel clunky. Weirdly, the first twenty to thirty minutes somehow feel both necessary and unnecessary.

The first part of Glass Onion is essential as it gives the viewers exposition about the characters in this movie but it’s unnecessary as we can visually see and verbally hear later on everything we need to know about them. It takes time away from the mystery itself and causes the movie to move at an odd pace. The pacing is weird in that you never notice how quickly the time flies while watching it, but at the same time, it feels slow. This has to do with what’s happening in the storyline and at what point in time.

When the movie is focusing on the mystery part of the story, it feels like it’s moving at the right speed. But as I said, the story for this movie, no matter what has you hooked from beginning to end that you don’t even notice how much time has passed until the credits start rolling. Another aspect I enjoyed about the writing is the humor of it all. The comedy in this movie worked so well that I think all of the jokes got laughs. Rian Johnson did a good job of balancing the seriousness of the movie and knowing when to throw in some humor.

Furthermore, the acting in this movie is just as good as the first movie, with a wide range of wacky characters. You can tell all of the actors in this film fully knew what kind of character they were playing and made it their own. Everyone did an outstanding job portraying all of the different kinds of obnoxious rich people, especially Kate Hudson, who plays Birdie Jay, and Dave Bautista, who plays Duke Cody. Hudson plays this fashion model who’s constantly being called out for some controversy online and not caring about it, whereas Bautista plays this online streamer who’s all about men’s rights.

I think what makes them stand out to me is that there are actual people out there like this that we see all the time. It just makes you shake your head in disappointment, all while giggling at their antics. For the film as a whole, though, two people stole the show for me the first one is Janelle Monáe, who plays Andi Brand. Monáe plays the outcast of the group so well that and makes the audience wonder what’s up with her. You can tell that Andi doesn’t want to be there but also comes across as someone with a purpose and mission, and they show that so well.

But of course, the real scene stealer of this movie is Daniel Craig as the weirdest detective ever. I’ll never get sick of seeing Craig playing Blanc just because you can tell he has so much fun playing this role. He easily switches between being this serious detective to joking around and having fun. He understands in what moments he needs to be which version of his character, and it just makes for an iconic character. Also, it was great getting to hear his weird southern accent again.

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An element in this movie that surprised me was the set design for it which was so well done, and I wish I was in the room where they designed this island. Everything on the island looks incredible and like something a tech billionaire would have. But even the simplest of rooms look outstanding, and you can see they wanted each room to have its unique look and feel. My favorite room is the glass onion itself because it is both terrifying and gorgeous.

In the end, Glass Onion on Netflix is one of those sequels that both improves on the first movie but still doesn’t surpass it. It’s still a good murder mystery movie that you’ll need to re-watch to pick up on everything.

‘Glass Onion’ Rating – 4/5

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