Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

5/10

Starring

Daniel Craig

Edward Norton

Janelle Monáe

Kathryn Hahn

 

Directed by Rian Johnson

 

Critics say one of the best movies of 2022, I say bullshit. Love Edward Norton and believe he is one of the best actors there is, but one of the best of 2022 is pushing this a little too far. This movie takes a lot of the Hercule Poirot plots and merges them into what turned out to be a wild goose chase.

The first Knives Out (2019) was amazing based on the way the movie kicked started with a similar theme which we are used to. A close-knit family where the matriarch is murdered, and everyone has something to gain by his death, Benoit Blanc comes in and shows us that he is a true Sherlock Holmes. This movie has the same vibe, a similar thread of a rich spoilt character who invites his friends to a murder mystery. Part of the ones invited are the ones whom he has crossed and here comes the detective who either stumbles on the occasion or was invited to be part of it. In this movie the detective was invited to be part of the fun.

Something I did not enjoy, is the overly elaborate intro to all the characters involved. The box puzzle to the party may be fun to some viewers to me it was a waste of time. Here is something. Andi must have been a bad friend to the others. Here comes a man who steals away Andi's friends by helping them to be successful and achieve their dreams with the aid of money which was also available to Andi via their company. Although he did so in a way that makes them dependent on him, if Andi had done the same when she was on top to some of the friends, then they would have been on her side.

The movie for me dragged the intro and getting to know everyone involved for thirty minutes longer than it should. For me this is better done when the movie evolves into its mystery and everyone’s true actions and thought (and who is too close or bedding who) is brought to the forefront, which eventually happens in the case of one character Duke. The rest were just as you have guessed from the start, how you always felt something was off about Andi and you know Blanc is not there from an invite from Miles.

The movie does pick up towards the end when you are already two-third in. When we get to know more about Andi being off behaviour and Blanc’s reason for being there and the movie then changes lane to a fast-paced mystery-thriller that you had to wait one-hour thirty minutes to get to.

The mystery party that was supposed to be about the death of the main asshole Miles, turns to a mystery drama where he is afraid for his life which makes him certain he has brought together the wrong crew with a wrong motive for his yearly party.

This mystery is not as good as Knives Out (2019), it drags a lot.

My biggest slap in the face from this movie is the lack of another character being a secondary villain. The reason the Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot books were amazing was the presence of another secondary villain which throws you off track of the main one. Here it seems everyone involved are just cowards, dumb and lazy to even do a thing.

The movies idea of withholding information from the start and dropping it in the end to make it seem like you have been tricked, just messed up the experience even more. Because the boring dialogue and lackluster beginning had already had me wishing I never craved a part two of Knives Out (2019).