Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Review

 

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (or simply/titled on-screen Glass Onion) is a comedy mystery film and the sequel to 2019's Knives Out. It's produced by T-Street and distributed by Netflix. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is written and directed by Rian Johnson.

The story is five people have been invited by their friend and detective Benoit Blanc have been invited by billionaire Miles to his private island for not only a get away, but for a murder mystery game. Soon someone is actually killed, and detective Blanc needs to find out which one of them did.

Initial Reaction

Now I really loved Knives Out, so when I heard a sequel was coming I was not only excited, but I had high expectations for this.

Cons

The biggest issue with the whole movie is it's trying to go for more bigger is better, when it should've been less is more. This is clearly shown during the finale when things start blowing up and such. I understand there was a story element there, but there was still a way to go about without feeling like it was over the top even if there are comedic bits. Like I said before, less is more, and that approach was there with the private island setting. Cause then you could not only have a great mystery film, but it also would've had a great claustrophobic element as well.

Middle Ground

There were two decent things Glass Onion had and that's pacing and humor. The pacing for the beginning and end, were very good. Especially in the beginning, the moment our characters get their invitations, the ball gets rolling. The middle part was very slow. It even could slower when we got to the twist, because now we had this new character, and we had to go through their backstory and reason to be on the island. Thankfully things did pick up when the mystery was being solved. Then there's the humor. It's decent at best. You'll get some laughs here and there, but I still admit this just wasn't as funny as the first film.

Pros

What'll really keep your interest throughout the whole movie is the performances and the mystery. Even if the story this time around is just okay, the cast do a fantastic job having a blast playing these characters, which in return keeps use entertained. Then the mystery. This was my biggest concern for this movie. I was worried the mystery just wasn't gonna be good as the first one was. I thought there wasn't gonna be much though put into it, thankfully that wasn't the case. We got an interesting murder case, with plenty of twist and turns to keep you guessing.

While Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery wasn't everything I was hoping to be, I still wasn't fully disappointed. There were still aspects of the film that I enjoyed throughout the runtime. Could've used more work on the pacing and humor, but nothing too bad. But like I said before, the movie should've been like the first in the case of size. Where it should've been less is more.

My final rating is Okay.

That's all for me. Come back on Monday, Dec 26th, for the finale of Looking Back at the Films of 2021. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day, but most importantly, have a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy Holidays.