Review: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

4/5
review

This is a great little whodunit caper, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you’ve seen the original Knives Out and liked it, you’ll probably like this too. If you haven’t, think an Agatha Christie novel.

I’ve seen people say it’s “tighter” then the original, but I’d have to disagree. I’d say they’re very comparable in pacing, if anything, the original film is a little more directed in it’s story. Both are excellent, though, and stand independently of each other.

Good movie. You should see it when you can. Beyond here are spoilers.

I really enjoyed the Mona Lisa’s glass box and how it was either open or shut by whether someone was lying or telling the truth. That’s classic movie shit, good work Mr. Johnson.

What really drove me nutty was the Covid stuff. I get it, it happened, you want to make your movie in the present day so you feel you must include it. I was worried that it was going to heavily use COVID-19 as a plot point; Birdy at one point is wearing a mesh mask that a lot of “anti-restricition” people touted - but instead the whole problem of COVID-19 being a thing is solved by a literal magic healing macguffin. why include it at all? Did they think the movie would come out sooner then it did? It feels stapled on to the plot, and that’s almost certainly because it was. I spend far too much time thinking about this.

The CGI Glass Onion was awful, but it’s not unbearable. I get why they couldn’t build such a ridiculous set. It’s barely worth mentioning bad CGI anymore, in any movie.

I didn’t see the culprit coming. There’s lots of good, non-obvious red herrings.

Benoit’s final speech was good but it was not as great as Daniel Craig’s monologue in Knives Out. The title drop in the original movie is incredible, but they say “Glass Onion” and make references to it peeling like, 40 times before Benoit’s speech so it’s not as impactful. Still a cathartic ending though. Fuck billionaires.

They’re already working on a Third one and I’ll definitely go to see it in theaters again. I’ll keep watching whodunits as long as they keep making them. I know they have to call it a “Knives Out” movie, but I feel a “Benoit Blanc Mystery” is much more catchy and makes more sense. I’m not a marketing exec though.