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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (now on Netflix)
Writer & director Rian Johnson surprised movie fans when he released ‘Knives Out’ in 2019. A commercially successful mystery film that reinvented the whodunnit genre through its refreshing, thrilling & clever storytelling approach.
Daniel Craig reprises his role as the smart detective Benoit Blanc who takes on an all new case comprising new characters.
The movie revives the basic features of the first from having brilliant visuals, to exquisite set design, interesting characters and a mystery awaiting to be unraveled.
I like Rian’s approach to the story & how this movie feels different from what was sold to us from the trailer.
The execution is refreshing, it doesn’t come like a repetitive, copy-and-paste endeavor. The story is more cerebral this time, treads the ridiculous line at times but stays quite likable.
Unlike the first, this takes more time to build its case as characters had to be introduced & the stage properly set for the main event. The clever humor & good surprises they pull along the way ensure the mood stays afloat when it appears to be going tedious.
The movie has a star cast who were really not required to deliver exceptional performances. They were mostly decent & it felt alright.
Glass Onion is not all-round compelling nor easy to digest as the first. It takes quite long to get to the heart of the story it tells & when it starts to connect the dots I really did not find my curiosity satisfied like I anticipated. I saw the twist coming even as they pulled good attempt to make us look the wrong way.
As a stand-alone mystery film I’d say this is another effective whodunnit thriller which works well in the end. It is fun, very smart, & shows that Rian still has an ace up his magical sleeve.
It’s also a big win for Netflix. Glass Onion & The Gray Man are among Netflix’s major projects for the year & in my opinion they are both fine production the streaming giant should be proud of.
Netflix actually acquired the rights of 2 sequels for a sum of $469m, hence a third Knives Out installment is expected. I don’t mind a third.
Critic_orb’s rating: Very Good 71%
*NO SPOILER COMMENTS*
