This was a huge step down from the previous film. I thought the first act was straight-up bad and not at all enjoyable. The COVID mentions felt dated and overly forced, and this film only just came out. That doesn't bode well for how this film will age. However, once the film gets going it gets better and is enjoyable, and they drop the COVID stuff, which in turn, actually makes the COVID mentions at the beginning feel even worse and more pointless than they had felt initially.

I thought that the plot felt far more simple and extremely predictable compared to the first film. I also thought that the characters (aside from Blanc), were largely much worse - both in writing, and performances given by the cast.

Daniel Craig and Benoit Blanc is just as good as he was in the first film, and he absolutely steals the show every time he's on screen. I also found Janelle Monáe as both Andi and Helen to be decent. Edward Norton's billionaire character, Miles Bron, was a mixed bag, and although he started out quite interesting with some potential, I found his character to inevitably be overly shallow and poorly written.

As far as the rest of the cast went? It wasn't so good. Most of them, such as Whiskey, were simply bland and forgettable. But others were downright awful characters that were overly shallow and just plain annoying. Kate Hudson's 'Birdie' was probably the worst offender here, and I found that her character lowered the quality of every scene she appeared in.

I realise that this review has been largely negative, but what I will say is that Glass Onion is still a mostly fun and entertaining experience for the majority of its runtime. I had a lot of fun watching it (aside from the first twenty minutes or so), and I don't regret it at all. I'd recommend watching it if you enjoyed the original film, but I just don't think it's anywhere close to being anything great like its predecessor was.

Rian Johnson is starting to turn into Jordan Peele. He's another one of those filmmakers that loves to work in this niche of subversive genre films that include a heavy dose of social commentary, and I'm all here for it. Specifically, with this franchise we’ve gone from satirizing old money with _Knives Out_ to satirizing new money with this new film (chances are _Knives Out 3_ will center around a group of homeless suspects). Now, a lot of films in that same vein have been released recently (_Triangle of Sadness, The Menu_), but I think none of them do the satire as well as this film. To me it’s too easy at this point to simply aim your commentary at these people by making a statement about how stupid and incompetent they are. It seems like low hanging fruit to me, because everyone with a brain knows that these types are vapid and contribute nothing to society. Luckily, Rian Johnson understands this too and goes one step beyond that, filtering all of his commentary through this idea of the glass onion. These people aren’t just stupid and incompetent, but they’re using a veil of eccentricity and ‘complexity’ to hide that. This is a brilliant deconstruction that rings very true for today’s society, and of course you can’t quite escape the obvious parallel with Twitter’s manchild CEO firing himself this week. This subtext is woven into a lot of elements of the film (character, location, plot, even some props), which means that some things are a lot dumber and simpler than they appear to be. I think that will annoy some people, but I think it's quite clever. Like the first film, you get a great cast of colourful characters. Some of them are given depth, some of them are just playing funny caricatures. Daniel Craig owns the whole movie again, but Janelle Monáe comes pretty close to outperforming him. Even people like Dave Bautista do a great job, and it’s because Rian Johnson knows how to use these actors despite their limited range. There are plenty of twists you won’t see coming and the filmmaking is again terrific. It looks very cinematic with the blocking, lighting and compositions, and the score feels very 60s (lots of strings, some minor baroque orchestration), which reminded me of _The White Lotus_ and a certain Beatles song. In the end, what puts it over the first film for me is the fact that the tone feels more consistent here. The more tense and dramatic moments of _Knives Out_ didn’t really hit home for me when you have Daniel Craig doing a really campy accent, and this one just fully embraces that it’s a silly comedy. And it’s a great one at that, nearly all the jokes landed for me. Maybe could’ve done with a little less shouting from Kate Hudson, but ok, it makes sense for the character. Probably the most fun movie of the year next to _Top Gun: Maverick_, and definitely one of the most well constructed.

8/10

Have to say, I’m surprised at the reaction to this movie. So confused by the positive reviews, it almost feels as if I watched a different movie. It is enjoyable but everyone is a caricature from the start. I thought it was more fun than the first, but the first was a better movie, with better characters and structure. _Glass Onion_ is a decent movie at best. It does unfortunately feel “Netflix’d” for lack of a better term.

The story is weak - here we're dealing with a super villain with make-believe technology who's trying destroy the world, how original, at least he is not Russian. The motives are weaker— especially for the scientist, the ending is implausible - the perfect example of having a message you agree with shoved down your throat with absolutely no subtlety whatsoever. This one reminds be of _Dont Look Up_, it's extremely on the nose. All the modern day references make me role my eyes. Maybe people aren't as drowned in internet s**t as me but aren't movies where we wanna escape to? If I wanted to see people make low-hanging jokes about Elon Musk I'd just read Twitter.

A list of my problems with _Glass Onion_:
**1. The group dynamic**. At no point do they actually spend time establishing the dynamic and friendship between these characters
Speaking of which, none of the characters really impressed me at all, I found everyone pretty one-dimensional and several were there just to take up space. All of them are caricatures - the meathead, dumb blonde, politician etc.
**2. Helen miraculously surviving** a bullet via a notebook felt cheap, and somehow Miles is in a perfect spot to shoot her behind an obscure glass structure and escape without being spotted. Speaking of which, was the reason Miles tried to murder Helen at all? He 100% knows Andi is dead. He surely knows she had a twin. He surely knows this is Helen. He has the evidence in his possession. What is his motive here?
**3. The twist** was kind of hokey. A twin sister, really?
**4. How Miles had a room key bracelet ready for Benoit**, if he wasn't expecting him? Another added detail is that they were supposedly assigned by chakras. How would he have Benoits if he didn't know he was coming?
**5. The Benoit Blanc** we meet in _Knives Out_ is deeply intelligent and observant. The 'detective' Blanc we meet here is a buffoon who pawns any real detective work off onto Janelle Monáe's character. Stating that Blanc isn't good with dumb things is the biggest cop out in the world to have written a dumb story.
**6. SO much telling and not showing.** Half of the dialogue was literally Craig and Monae's characters explaining different parts of the plot to the viewer. The flashback sequence took a lot of time and kinda drove the tension out of the story.
**7. The fact that the entire mystery hinged on Bron being dumb.** It feels cheap that whatever segment of the murder that's wrong can be copped out with Miles being an idiot. I feel like a billionaire would hire someone to kill Andi and not do it personally. Another nitpick is that the 'twist' is that Miles so stupid despite him killing two people and leaving the world's best detective with zero tangible evidence that can convict him. Miles somehow managed to get all of charaacter's careers started and at least co-built a company and managed to have Andi kicked out of it.
**8. The ending dragged out too long.** It felt like the solution was there once the napkin was burned, but then there had to be one last 'big twist' to make the movie more dramatic, just for the sake of shock value. The fact that Helen blew up the house but it was still intact and nobody died felt a little too unbelievable. Miles Bron’s last line of indignation was extremely cheesy. Him calling everyone a shithead while shaking his head was akin to a Scooby-Doo villain calling the gang a bunch of meddling kids before being sent to prison. It definitely felt cartoonish. The ending was the cheesiest thing i've seen in years. And then the friends are unwilling to turn on Miles even after it is revealed he killed two of their friends, but will do it because Helen broke some things?? Considering they're all extremely reliant on Miles' money and success.

_Glass Onion_ feels like a bloated version of a fleet Broadway show. It was far too silly for me, the screenplay, the characters, all of it. i mean, it was entertaining, but it was also quite dumb.

Benoit Blanc's second outing is an enjoyable film, but still felt like a step down when compared to the original. It tries to do all of the same things, but none of them are quite as successful. The ensemble isn't as compelling, the humor doesn't land quite as often, and, most critically, the central mystery isn't nearly as clever and satisfying. All of that said, I consider the original film to be an instant classic, so the bar was quite high, and even falling short of that bar, this film has plenty of worthwhile elements. The set-up is fantastic, and I was totally on board with everything up through the hilarious scene where [spoiler]Benoit instantly solves Miles' murder mystery game and wins an iPad[/spoiler]. Additionally, even though the humor wasn't quite as consistent, there were still some inspired moments, one of the standouts being when [spoiler]Benoit dabs his eyes with Jeremy Renner's hot sauce[/spoiler]. The film also got plenty of mileage out of extravagant billionaire related humor (e.g. [spoiler]the live stream of Serena Williams in the personal gym[/spoiler]). There were also plenty of cameos, some of which were used to solid effect, while others felt strangely superfluous ([spoiler]what was the point of Hugh Grant? Was he playing himself, like the various celebrities Benoit was facetiming with in his tub, or was he a character?[/spoiler]).

As for my critiques of the central mystery, the plotting just felt a little forced. For example, Benoit's final monologue in which he identifies the culprit hinges on the idea that [spoiler]Miles had been completely ruled out as a suspect on account of his reputation as a genius. However, the decision to rule him out was force fed to the audience and glossed over so quickly that it never really felt right to begin with. As such, this monologue that is positioned as a big reveal, doesn't feel like much of a reveal at all[/spoiler]. Also, the bombastic finale dragged on too long and lead to an overly predictable payoff ([spoiler]the glass breaking into fire starting into Mona Lisa burning took forever, and with how often the Mona Lisa security was mentioned/shown, it was obvious what was going to happen[/spoiler]). I couldn't help but feel like the movie was missing one extra twist or turn that could have kept things a bit more fresh. In fact, the writing had a set up for one that would have worked with very minimal changes: [spoiler]Whiskey should have been the one to shoot Andi. She thought that Andi killed Duke and had an extended moment near Duke's body where she could have grabbed his gun. This would have made the final cat and mouse more interesting, as Miles would have been able to honestly deny one of the crimes, thus casting doubt on his overall guilt[/spoiler]. That's just me spitballing, but I think it would have made for a more interesting third act.

In my review of "Knives Out", I stated that it is the cinematic equivalent of a cozy blanket on a cold winter day, which instantly warms you up. "Glass Onion", on the other hand, is more like a refreshing drink that needs to be refrigerated for half an hour before it tastes great. The second adventure of Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc consists of the same puzzle pieces as its predecessor: there is a great cast, an extravagant setting, and an intriguing case. But the pieces just don't quite fit together at the beginning.

The first act drags significantly. The characters don't work at all, and even Craig seems off. Furthermore, a creative decision will almost certainly ensure that "Glass Onion" will never have the timeless quality of its predecessor. The beginning already feels dated.

Fortunately, there is a point in the film where director Rian Johnson manages to bend the puzzle pieces back together so that they do fit. When the audience is introduced to the mystery at the heart of the story, the characters begin to work much better. The narrative then picks up considerably, and Craig suddenly has the same charisma as in the first part. This good feeling lasted for me until the end. The central mystery is satisfactorily resolved, but it falls short of the first part's finale. However, as with "Knives Out", the rewatch value is high. I'm already looking forward to the next Benoit Blanc film.