By George Haerle

For the Grays Harbor News Group

Much like the career of its creator and director — M. Night Shyamalan — “Glass” is a real mixed bag of good and bad. The third and final entry of his surprise “Unbreakable” trilogy is a somewhat-functional conclusion to the story arc, but viewers might not warm up to the strange directions and story twists the film offers.

While the marketing for “Glass” has advertised the movie as a climactic showdown between David Dunn (Bruce Willis,) Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) and Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy,) the film just barely delivers on that level, and the third act leaves a whole lot to be desired.

The original “Unbreakable” has aged quite well, and “Split” was an absolute blast, but this critic was completely befuddled once the credits rolled. The first act sets up everything rather well, following David Dunn from “Unbreakable,” who since the first film all those years ago has opened a home-security business with his son, while fighting street crime as the alter ego of the Overseer. It also tracks Kevin Crumb from “Split,” who has abducted four girls again and is up to the same terrifying tendencies we saw in his own movie. But the titular character of Elijah Price — aka Mr. Glass — doesn’t even become a significant player until well over halfway into the film.

By then, things have started to get really bizarre. Dunn, Crumb and Price all end up imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital and under the care of Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), who specializes in mental disorders in which people believe they are superheroes. How the film goes on from this point suddenly becomes an unstable seismograph in varying quality.

The best part of the film is James McAvoy’s MVP performance as Kevin and his 20-plus personalities that all seem to revolve around an alpha superhuman identity known as The Beast. The role was knocked out of the park by McAvoy both in “Split” and here. He ability to shift from frighteningly mad to hilarious to sympathetic all in the matter of a scene is just entertaining as hell. His performance alone is a reason to see the movie, as well as Bruce Willis, who for once doesn’t seem like he’s yawning through a performance and actually gives a damn about his character.

But despite Willis’ own well-performed return as David Dunn from “Unbreakable,” once again the middle and third act of the film seems to lose focus of his character almost altogether and poorly handles the completion of his character arc. This nearly kills the film entirely, considering the trilogy started with his excellent performance in the first film of this series and then seems to abandon all interest in him.

Spencer Treat Clark actually returns from the original film as well as Dunn’s son Joseph, and Anya Taylor-Joy returns as Casey from “Split,” but their characters — much like Willis’ — are so unfocused and have so little actual contribution you can’t help but feel bad for this talented trio who end up terribly written and directed.

Once again, this all is due to Shyamalan having no idea how to handle his weird third act that, much like Kevin Crumb, is split between several different identities. It ping pongs back and forth between Crumb and Price, as well as a few subplots that go almost nowhere and interesting side characters that end up completely pointless. The last 40 minutes of the film piles on so many twists (a habit Shyamalan apparently can’t avoid) that dive so hard and deep into the film’s own concept that it becomes downright silly and jaw-droppingly strange (in a bad way).

But even these feelings are made mixed by some of the gleaming spots of excellence that are definitely here, despite the significant amount of sharp edges and a broken script.

The cast is all around excellent in every role, with Jackson slipping right back into the part of Mr. Glass like a perfectly fit slipper and, as mentioned before, McAvoy is the best thing about the film. And though the script is janky and not good, there are some great character scenes, some plot developments that are genuinely thrilling and fragments of a great story. It’s just all underneath a lot of sub-par and meandering filmmaking that delves way too hard into the director’s own self-indulgence.

“Glass” is a total toss-up in how you’ll feel about it. It’s so split between an entertaining first half and unsatisfying weirdness in the second that it’s hard to recommend. But it’s impossible to dismiss as some positives are quite outstanding and some of it is so weird it has to be seen to be believed. If you happen to pass by it on your Netflix queue one night in the months to come, consider pressing play.

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“Glass” is currently playing at the Riverside Cinemas, 1017 S. Boone St. in Aberdeen.

George Haerle holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing for media and lives in Cosmopolis.