EFAP spent an hour on the first 4 mins criticising Pillars before he even said his argument. Glass Onion is okay, maybe even good. I enjoyed watching it in NYE. Much more than last year's Netflix film Don't Look Up. Man that was fucking dour.
Glass onion was fine for what it was. I just don't get where people are coming from when talking about this movie.
People bashing it criticise the movie for not being a poorly conceived Agatha Christie-esque "Whodunit", having the movie introduce plot points out of no-where, non-sensical misleading interactions, and overall a weak scritp. And the people who liked the movie use the lampshade argument that the point is to be dumb and "poorly writen", because the villain is a pompous dumbass, so there is no clever plot because the rich idiot is just an idiot.
And I don't get both arguments. Look, these Knives out movies are not trying to be mystery flicks, they use the framing of one to tell another story, as far as a "detective story" goes, these movies are just a parody with no real intention with engaging the audience to work along to solve a case. The first movie, at least in the first half, tried to be one, but the mid point twist shows that the story was about something else. Glass Onion doesn't even try, there is no mystery, we know all along who the villain is. So I don't get why bash the movie for not being "Murder in the Nile".
Said that, the argument "It was supposed to be dumb!!! it is in the name (Glass onion)!!!!!" is stupid. I hate lampshading in fiction, when a story goes out of it's way to wink and nod at me to say it knows it's bad craft. It is the same as a fat guy telling fat jokes, and self-deprecation doesn't mean you are getting any less fat, or you movie is getting any less stupid. And that is the problem with Glass Onion, yes, i get that it is just a lampoon of a murder mystery, yes, i get that the whole plot feels stupid to reflect on how stupid the villain character is, but that doesn't change that what the movie is actually trying to accomplish is shallow and derivative.
And that is the main issue with Glass Onion (and knives Out also), it is "baby's first social commentary". Oh wow, rich people are self-absorved and dumb, never heard this one before!!! Making fun of out-of-touch wealthy people has to be one of the most tired topics of social critique possible, and if you have nothing else to add to that, then what is the point? Am I supposed to clap along when the movies makes fun of Elon Musk/Steve jobs as if I never heard that one before? Why? Because it is commentary, because it has "something to say", even if it was already said a dozen of times before just this year?
Ah whatever. Look, Glass Onion is Hollywood Liberal as fuck, so if you are tired of that bullshit, don't bother. But if you can stomach it, the movie itself isn't all that bad, the actors seem to be having fun, dialogue isn't all that great, but you do get some funny bits here and there, and if you liked the first one, Glass Onion will do fine with you.
Dunno what to say, pedestrian opinion for a pedestrian movie, that is all there is here really.