Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Review
We finally have a sequel to 2019’s smash hit, Knives Out. This time it’s called Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. It’s a nice Netflix original movie that drops December 23rd on the platform, but over Thanksgiving they released it in theaters for one week. I was able to watch this movie in the theaters, so how is this movie? Is it better, worse, or just as good as the original? Let’s get started!
The Good:
And when it comes to this movie, it delivers everything that you want from this franchise. If you enjoyed the style and humor of the original film, this movie gives you more of that. Rian Johnson knew what worked about the first movie and delivered a sequel that doubles down on all of that. So you get plenty of the Rian Johnson humor, a compelling mystery, and a fun lively set of characters played by great actors. So if you saw my review of Knives Out and any other places in which I’ve talked about you know that I love that movie. It was one of my favorite movies of 2019 and of that decade. And so as somebody that loved the first movie and was very excited for this movie, it gave me everything that I wanted from this movie. This franchise is very much an audience film, meaning it’s a movie that is great to see with an audience. And I wish they released it in theaters and wasn’t a Netflix original movie. Especially the first two weeks in December, have really nothing coming out so drop this movie in theaters then. But it’s whatever, and people will still have fun with it on Netflix.
And as it is a murder mystery you have to talk about the murder mystery side of things. And I thought it worked and kept me guessing from beginning to the end. And like the first movie, it’s not just one big twist by the end of the movie. There are a bunch of smaller twists that lead up to the big reveal at the end of the movie. So when these characters are first introduced you learn one piece of information, but as it goes along the layers start to peel and you learn more and more about what’s going on. And it gives everybody a motive, everybody has a motive as to why they are the killer of the movie. And it’s hard to pinpoint who the killer is, because as soon as you think it’s this person. There is some twist that makes you think it’s somebody else.
Another thing with this movie is that once again Rian Johnson cast a great movie. Everybody in the movie is having a lot of fun with the material. I don’t think it’s as strong of a cast as the first movie, the first movie’s cast was just something so special. I don’t think that energy, that vibe translates to this movie but it’s still a fun set of actors. Of course you got the great Daniel Craig in the lead role here and you can tell that he’s having a lot of fun. His line delivery here is great, since he’s surrounded by all of these rich people and he’s just a normal everyday man, you get some great fish out of water comedy in this movie. And Daniel Craig plays all of it really really well in this movie. Couple of the standouts with the new actors would be Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista. Kate Hudson is playing this extravagant and kind of clueless model that gets some great moments in the movie. And then Dave Bautista is playing this hulking YouTuber guy that gets some great moments. It’s fun to see Dave Bautista in a movie like this. But like I said, everybody here is great with Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., and several other familiar faces along the way.
Like I’ve alluded to all through-out this review but it’s really funny. It has all of that same humor that was in the first movie. And my theater was laughing out loud with this movie from beginning to end. Every character in the movie gets some joke, some moment that puts a smile on your face. Kate Hudson’s character was one of the ones that certainly got the biggest reactions out of my audience. But so did Dave Bautista, so did Daniel Craig and quite frankly…so did everybody in the movie.
Finally, this movie just looks great. The movie primarily takes place in Greece, except for a few scenes here and there. And since Greece is just such a beautiful city it makes the movie look good. Then the actual mystery takes place on this private island owned by Edward Norton’s character, and it just all looks great.
The Bad:
The big thing here is that final reveal, the big twist in the finale wasn’t as meaningful or impactful as I think it should have been. I’m not saying the reveal is bad by any means, I didn’t have any issues with it. I didn’t see it coming, but it also kind of just happened. Like the big twist in the first movie got a bigger reaction out of me and was more meaningful, this one not as much. And I can’t really say what about it didn’t work for me, it’s not something specific that didn’t work for me. Just the twist and mystery as a whole was a weak point for me. And honestly, I don’t know how I’ll feel about this movie after multiple watches.
Another issue here is that COVID plays a factor in the movie. When the characters arrive in Greece they are in masks, and definitely are trying to social distance from one another. And I don’t think the COVID aspects fully worked for me, they felt very out of place. Like it felt like a Rian Johnson trying to remind the audience that COVID was a thing. But it doesn’t really factor much into the plot of the movie, it’s just there at the end. It’s a plot point that could have been taken out from the movie, and it wouldn’t have changed the movie whatsoever. It’s not a big issue but something I certainly did notice while watching it.
Final Thoughts: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a very good sequel to the original movie. It’s a movie that delivers everything that you liked about the first movie, fans shouldn’t be disappointed by this one. It keeps you guessing and engaged from beginning to end, it has a great cast, and the humor is on point. And while I think it’s a very good movie, it’s not as good as the first movie. That movie is just something special in my mind so it should be heard to top it. If you enjoyed the first movie and are excited for it, watch it either in theaters or on Netflix.
The Score: 8.9/10 (B+)
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