Although the first one was great, this one was better. It is ingenious, mind-blowingly preposterous and enjoyable to watch with Daniel Craig as the detective once again. Get ready for an engaging movie; you want to watch this. Let’s read the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery review to see why you must watch this movie.
Rian Johnson was the writer and director of this movie and established a murder-mystery, like an Agatha Christie approach, where the culprit gets revealed at the end of the movie. It was also like a Culumbo approach as the story took place at the start of the movie. The murderer’s identity starts to emerge gradually in the second half of the movie, which was like an unfurling pirouette. However, viewers will be guessing for Johnson and his enigmatic, drawling sleuth. This movie is all about disruptors. Just like one of the characters in the movie states, disruptors are defined as those who break what is norm. They think of something that people are tired of and offer a better next step.
In modern cinema, you cannot see many great disruptors like Rian Johnson. He was the writer-director who mixed noir with teen drama in Brick, presented another side of sci-fi with Star Wars: The Last Jedi and changed what the expectations from murder mystery movies were in the Knives Out. He showed us again that he is a fantastic disruptor in this movie with Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) having his second mystery unravelling case that was bigger and more entertaining than the first one.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Review
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery makes the puzzle-crazy spirit of the first movie come out and that one was also written and directed by Rian Johnson. Fans of the first movie were keen on getting a sequel with a twist and Rian Johnson had to work harder to surprise and could have risked trying too hard and losing the audience in complexity. However, that was not the case as its second try was another movie filled with twist and funny dialogues.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Review: Verdict
Getting to the verdict of the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery review, we can tell you that this movie is embodied in the phrase “watchable”. The cast, the dialogues, and the plot, all are entertaining. One of the greatest original movies from Netflix that came out recently and everyone will recommend watching it. Although Netflix has tons of great movies, when it came to Netflix Originals, there has always been a curious case. This movie, however, broke that pattern as it offered a lively and great movie that the audience and critics appreciate.
Netflix movies usually go for movies that are fun or serious and although neither of those are bad, many have been expecting Netflix to deliver a movie that would be appreciated by a wider audience, who would not feel bad about watching it. Rian Johnson did exactly that and what many have been hoping for. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a great movie that you even want to watch twice. This movie has impressed many and in the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery review, you will learn why.
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Review: Cast
Johnson follows the approach of Agatha Christie’s mystery novels with an amazing cast in this movie, enabling the details and small things of the movie to go right. All begins with Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc, the detective whose skills are phenomenal. Not to mention the novelty of James Bond voicing like a southern gentleman not wearing off yet.
Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, gets an invitation to a murder mystery party that Miles Bron, portrayed by Edward Norton, is hosting. The party is held on a private island in Greece and Miles is a tech billionaire looking for some fun with his friends. Blanc is delighted to be invited as he always craves mystery and this is his life’s work. The fact that he has not been in practice has been driving him mad. This has worked perfectly for Craig as it gave him more emoting to do.
What makes Blanc even more of an interloper in this movie compared with the previous one is the fact that his being on the island does not make sense given the circumstances. Miles invited his friends who are a group of movers, influencers and shakers that are called disruptors to the island for a party in which they have to solve the mystery of his murder. Kate Hudson’s Birdie and Dave Bautista’s Duke are the loudest among the group and they are two unaware goofs who rely on Bron for getting their careers ahead. Leslie Odom Jr.’s Lionel works for the company Bron owns, whereas Claire, played by Kathryn Hahn, is a politician trying to rise. These two are thought to be the brains of the guests but each of them found themselves in frustrating situations that need Bron’s support.
Another incredible cast is Janelle Monae, playing the role of Andi, who was Bron’s former girlfriend and partner at the company he holds. Although she is not in good terms with the host and the guests, she comes to the party. Monae’s performance is amazing and filled with surprises, especially the part where she consumes alcohol. Her role was so good that it might be a huge success for her career from now on. She has previously appeared in dramas such as Hidden Figures and Moonlight, but now a wider audience have come to know her.
Then, there is Edward Norton, whose Miles Bron remind people of a big tech CEO, Zuckerberg. His outfit is even straight out of the look book of Steve Jobs. Some might even see him as a mockery of Elon Musk. In addition to all of that, his character keeps personifying unearned confidence and he lacks the understanding of very common concepts, which can easily be seen by many people. This movie is about the dumb being the leader of the dumber and a detective working to find out the mystery there is in the middle of all that chaos. Courtesy of amazing casting, pulling all that off was done easily and did not feel forced or odd at all.
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Review: Plot (Spoiler Alert)
Miles Bron is a tech CEO who has earned trillions of dollars courtesy of his stake in Alpha, which is an online network fusing data, crypto and news. Every year, he invites his friends over to his island for a gathering and this time around things take a turn. His private island has a building in the middle that looks like an onion and it is made out of glass. Therefore, it is called Glass Onion. This time, Miles invites his fellow disruptors to a murder-mystery themed party and they have to solve it. Among the guests are politician Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), supermodel turned designer Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), YouTuber and men’s rights activist Duke Cody (Dave Bautista), scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr) and – most interesting and uncomfortably among them all – Cassandra Brand (Janelle Monáe).
She was the one who had the original idea for Alpha but Miles ousted him from the company as she did not agree with her way of handling things. Another one of the most interesting guests is Benoit Blanc. Although Miles says that he did not invite Blanc, he is let in anyway as the multitrillionaire is amused by the prank that his guests are pulling off.
Miles has an idea for his party which is him being fictionally killed by one of the guests. They, then, have to figure out who the killer was. Things take a turn and the guests will ask Benoit to save them after Duke is murdered right in front of everyone in plain site. When Duke is murdered drinking from Miles’ cocktail glass instead of his own, it appears as if someone intended to kill Miles. He then gets on a mission to find out who wanted to kill him but his plan backfires when the light go out as part of his previous party plan. When the light come back, they find Andi shot by someone, mysteriously.
Then comes the first twist of the movie. Andi is actually not herself, she is Helen, Andi’s twin sister. It turns out that Andi was killed long before they all got on the island for the party. Let’s unpack a little more. Miles Bron is the one that killed Andi due to the fact that she threatened to come out with the truth regarding his corrupt new energy source. Klear, the new energy source, was planned to be shown to the public but he had not test it properly before that. Bron made it seem like Andi committed a suicide, but Helen did not buy into that narrative. It is then when she decides to ask Blanc to travel to the island and find out what happened.
It is also revealed that Miles was the one who killed Duke after all. The reason behind that was Duke spotting him when he was driving off Andi’s house following her murder. Since he knew that Duke would figure it out once her death is made public, Bron decided to kill Duke. Benoit Blanc, however, puts the missing pieces of the puzzle together to find out the truth but they do not have evidence to prove their claims. Helen becoming furious decides to smash everything in Miles’ house and starts a fire, which she knows will turn into a fireball explosion as Klear is explosive and the whole Glass Onion is being run by this source. Mona Lisa’s painting, which Bron loaned from the French museum, gets burned in the fire and his fate is sealed as he becomes the man who destroyed Mona Lisa with his new energy source.
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Review: Why this is the perfect Netflix movie
If you check out the list of popular movies on Netflix, you may remember the Coldplay hit: “look at the starts, look how they shine for you.” This is one of the many reasons why Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a smash for Netflix.
We have action heroes, Daniel Craig and Dave Bautista, and then there is Edward Norton, who has a prestigious career. The younger audience will be rooting for the musician-actor Janelle Monae and Kate Hudson encourages her rom-com fans to watch it. Moreover, Kathryn Hahn is thriving incredibly well that the term ‘Hahnassaince’ became the modern parlance.
Aside from all of that, you have the fact that this movie is so rewatchable that you want to watch it at least twice. Despite not being the novel breath of fresh air like the previous one, the twist will have you going back to watch it a second time.
For those who do not know, Netflix benefits a great deal from hours watched. Although the subscribers and its audience have to grow more, its most significant measure of success is the time people spend watching it. This movie will definitely have people coming back which is a delight for executives over at Netflix.
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Review: Verdict
It sounds perfectly clear now as to why Netflix decided to invest in these two movies. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery review has shown that the plot was perfectly crafted and there are twists and turns that we will not spoil in any sections except for the plot. The all-star cast also helped the movie thrive.
Although some might say that Glass Onion is missing something, it might be understandable. However, keep in mind that this sequel is based on a detective sleuth. While Blanc’s character is explored a little more in this movie, the true purpose of the film was showing a fun whodunnit. The new locale of Johnson might be more glamourous but just like the original movie, the cast of Glass Onion is excellent.