When Knives Out came out in 2019 the thing that most enticed people to see this movie was the story of it. Not many murder mystery movies were coming out in recent years so it was a shock to finally get one that was good. That trend continues here with Glass Onion even if the story for this one might feel a bit more clunky. When it comes to the mystery element of this movie, Glass Onion knocks it out of the park. Rian Johnson, the writer and director, cleverly wrote this movie in order to confuse the audience and not know exactly who the murderer might be. Unlike in Knives Out, where the clues are obvious and easy to figure out, this movie cleverly makes those hints subtle so even the most sharpest-eyed person can't figure it out. This to me is what makes this movie's story so interesting. It makes you want to rewatch it in order to see if you can pick up on those subtle hints that you missed the first time around. Of course, there are some elements in this movie where you can easily figure out they're going to be used or mentioned in some way later on. The plot twists in this movie are also really well done but are what makes this movie feel clunky. The twist in this movie causes the movie to come to a screeching halt just to properly explain it and how it ties into everything. Once we learn how it ties into everything the movie takes a while to get back on track to the original story happening. This isn't the only part of this movie that makes it feel clunky. Roughly the first twenty to thirty minutes of this movie somehow both feel necessary and unnecessary.
The first part of this movie is necessary as it gives us the audience exposition about the characters in this movie but it's unnecessary as we can visually see and verbally hear later on everything we need to know about them. It takes time away from the mystery itself and causes the movie to move at an odd pace. The pacing for this movie is weird in how you never notice how quickly time flies while watching it but at the same time it feels slow. This just has to do with what's happening in the story and at what point in time. When the movie is focusing on the mystery part of the story then it feels like it's moving at the right speed. At any other point in this movie though you definitely feel the pacing of this movie go slow. But as I said, the story for this movie no matter what has you hooked from beginning to end that you don't even notice how much time has passed till the credits start rolling. Another thing I enjoyed about the writing in this movie is the humour of it all. The humour in this movie worked so well that I think all of the jokes in this movie got laughs. Rian Johnson did a good job of balancing the seriousness of the movie and knowing when to throw in some humour. But even if the story for this movie is clunky, the biggest reason why the audience doesn't really care is because of the acting. The acting in this movie is just as good as the first movie with a wide range of wacky characters. You can tell all of the actors in this movie fully knew what kind of character they were playing and made it their own. Everyone in this movie did an outstanding job portraying all of the different kinds of obnoxious rich people. The two actors who showed this the best are Kate Hudson, who plays Birdie Jay, and Dave Bautista, who plays Duke Cody. Both of them played the most obnoxious ones in the group which just made for a fun time. Kate Hudson plays this fashion model who's constantly being called out for some kind of controversy online and not caring about it whereas Dave Bautista plays this streamer who's all about men's rights.
I think what makes them stand out to me is that there are actual people out there like this that we see all the time. It just makes you shake your head in disappointment all while laughing at their antics. For the movie as a whole though there were two people who really stole the show for me the first one is Janelle Monáe, who plays Andi Brand. Janelle Monáe plays the outcast of the group so well and really makes the audience wonder what's up with her. You can tell that Andi doesn't want to be there but also comes across as someone with a purpose and mission and they show that so well. But of course, the real scene stealer of this movie is Daniel Craig as the weirdest detective ever. I will never get sick of seeing Daniel Craig playing Detective Blanc just because you can tell he has so much fun playing this role. He so easily switches between being this serious detective to joking around and having fun. He understands in what moments he needs to be which version of his character and it just makes for an iconic character. Also, it was great getting to hear his weird southern accent again. An element in this movie that surprised me was the set design for it. The set design in this movie was so well done and I wish I was in the room where they designed this island. Everything on the island looks incredible and like something a tech billionaire would have. But even the simplest of rooms look outstanding and you can see they wanted each room to have its own unique look and feel. My personal favourite room is the glass onion itself because that room is both terrifying, and 100% would give people a fear of heights, and gorgeous. In the end, Glass Onion is one of those sequels that both improves on the first movie but still doesn't surpass it. It's still a good murder mystery movie that you'll definitely need to rewatch in order to pick up on everything.
The first part of this movie is necessary as it gives us the audience exposition about the characters in this movie but it's unnecessary as we can visually see and verbally hear later on everything we need to know about them. It takes time away from the mystery itself and causes the movie to move at an odd pace. The pacing for this movie is weird in how you never notice how quickly time flies while watching it but at the same time it feels slow. This just has to do with what's happening in the story and at what point in time. When the movie is focusing on the mystery part of the story then it feels like it's moving at the right speed. At any other point in this movie though you definitely feel the pacing of this movie go slow. But as I said, the story for this movie no matter what has you hooked from beginning to end that you don't even notice how much time has passed till the credits start rolling. Another thing I enjoyed about the writing in this movie is the humour of it all. The humour in this movie worked so well that I think all of the jokes in this movie got laughs. Rian Johnson did a good job of balancing the seriousness of the movie and knowing when to throw in some humour. But even if the story for this movie is clunky, the biggest reason why the audience doesn't really care is because of the acting. The acting in this movie is just as good as the first movie with a wide range of wacky characters. You can tell all of the actors in this movie fully knew what kind of character they were playing and made it their own. Everyone in this movie did an outstanding job portraying all of the different kinds of obnoxious rich people. The two actors who showed this the best are Kate Hudson, who plays Birdie Jay, and Dave Bautista, who plays Duke Cody. Both of them played the most obnoxious ones in the group which just made for a fun time. Kate Hudson plays this fashion model who's constantly being called out for some kind of controversy online and not caring about it whereas Dave Bautista plays this streamer who's all about men's rights.
I think what makes them stand out to me is that there are actual people out there like this that we see all the time. It just makes you shake your head in disappointment all while laughing at their antics. For the movie as a whole though there were two people who really stole the show for me the first one is Janelle Monáe, who plays Andi Brand. Janelle Monáe plays the outcast of the group so well and really makes the audience wonder what's up with her. You can tell that Andi doesn't want to be there but also comes across as someone with a purpose and mission and they show that so well. But of course, the real scene stealer of this movie is Daniel Craig as the weirdest detective ever. I will never get sick of seeing Daniel Craig playing Detective Blanc just because you can tell he has so much fun playing this role. He so easily switches between being this serious detective to joking around and having fun. He understands in what moments he needs to be which version of his character and it just makes for an iconic character. Also, it was great getting to hear his weird southern accent again. An element in this movie that surprised me was the set design for it. The set design in this movie was so well done and I wish I was in the room where they designed this island. Everything on the island looks incredible and like something a tech billionaire would have. But even the simplest of rooms look outstanding and you can see they wanted each room to have its own unique look and feel. My personal favourite room is the glass onion itself because that room is both terrifying, and 100% would give people a fear of heights, and gorgeous. In the end, Glass Onion is one of those sequels that both improves on the first movie but still doesn't surpass it. It's still a good murder mystery movie that you'll definitely need to rewatch in order to pick up on everything.