‘Glass Onion’ fails to meet high expectations
Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons
At the beginning of the movie we see the characters receive an invitation. On that invitation has an evil eye or a mati and it refers to Miles Bron and his connection to his friends, the disruptors.
Watching as the mystery unravels, secret after secret, lie after lie. Each character is revealed to us in layers, like an onion.
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” satisfies the mystery hunters, such as myself, but doesn’t exceed expectations.
The movie “Knives Out” was released Nov. 27, 2019. It was a booming success.
Upon the death of a crime novelist, Harlan Thrombey, the dysfunctional Thrombey family is questioned by detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). Blanc must uncover the truth of Harlan Thrombey and his suspicious death.
The mystery/thriller and comedy got a 97% on the Tomatometer, and the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes was 92%.
After three years of waiting, we finally got a sequel, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” released Nov. 23, 2022.
I loved the first “Knives Out” movie. It was very engaging. The movie constantly kept me at the edge of my seat, from the music to the tension and dynamic between the characters.
After watching the first movie I was obsessed with the idea of a sequel, giving me super high expectations for the second movie.
According to Variety, the film got 82.1 million hours of viewing time in its first weekend on Netflix, breaking the Netflix record. Netflix estimated that about 35 million households tuned in for the movie as of Dec. 27.
“Glass Onion” didn’t have my attention. There were times when I was on my phone scrolling through Instagram.
— Ava Chun '25
I felt that there weren’t as many advertisements surrounding this movie as there was with the first “Knives Out.” But I can definitely see how this movie got so much attention. After the first movie was such a hit, I know I was just at the edge of my seat to see what the director, Rian Johnson had in store for us once again.
“Glass Onion” features tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) who invites his closest friends to his private island in Greece, when one of them is mysteriously poisoned. Benoit Blanc returns to the big screen as he embarks on a new investigation to untangle the mystery.
Although there were red herrings and other diversions trying to distract viewers from identifying the true villain, however, there were also a ton of clues throughout the movie so the ending was not so surprising and a bit disappointing.
“Glass Onion” didn’t have my attention. There were times when I was on my phone scrolling through Instagram.
The movie simply should have taken a better turn instead of playing it safe.
“Glass Onion” grossed $13-15 million during a five-day stretch, according to CNBC. The movie had the potential to bring in lots of cash but Netflix only allowed for the movie to be in theaters for a week and only played in certain theaters.
While this was a loss for Netflix and the movie theater industry, I enjoyed being able to pause the movie at home. I was watching with a friend who was often confused during the movie and watching it on Netflix made it super easy to just pause and rewind to explain the scene.
If I was in the theater I would be explaining rather than watching, and no one wants that one group of people talking up a storm during the movie.
Overall, I think this movie was super interesting and fun to solve the crime in the comfort of my couch, although I was a bit disappointed due to my high standards of the first movie.
Arts Editor Ava Chun ’25 can be found spending most of her time at the Westport’s Academy of Dance. And her passion has driven her to become the co-president...
