“Glass Onion” fills shoes of thrilling predecessor

The formula is pretty clear in Hollywood. If a film is successful, more is always better. While this often leads to uninspired sequels or plain old remakes, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” takes a step away from its highly-rated predecessor and proves that originality in media is not only still possible, but extremely necessary.

Once again directed by Rian Johnson, “Glass Onion” follows Detective Benoit Blanc when he is mysteriously invited to a billionaire’s island getaway. There he meets the suspicious and seemingly extremely loyal group of old friends. However, when a murder mystery dinner party goes awry, Blanc is tasked with solving the crime and unwinding the tangled past of the guests. Packed with twists and turns, this sequel managed to stay captivating for the entire 2 hours and 19 minutes.

Unlike many sequels, “Glass Onion” features almost entirely new characters, with the exception of Blanc. Although those characters were well developed, their story was over, so dragging them into another mystery would have felt repetitive and dull. Thankfully, this movie kept the central character of the detective and simply gave him a new mystery to solve while surrounding him with new eccentric characters. These new characters were well thought out and had full background stories. This helped the movie feel fresh and intriguing throughout while still supplying some form of recognizability for repeat audience members.

Another thing “Glass Onion” did well was hiring a recognizable cast to draw in outside viewers. Along with returning cast member Daniel Craig, the movie prominently features Kate Hudson, Madelyn Cline, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe and Dave Bautista. This is a brilliant way to get people who may not have been familiar with the original, but recognize a name in the sequel, to go and see the movie.

Although it was certainly refreshing to see new characters, “Glass Onion” did a wonderful job at maintaining the same standard of writing and detailed aesthetic as the original. One of the best things about the first movie is that it had a well written script that made the mystery unpredictable. That carried over to this movie because not only was it also unpredictable, it managed to be completely different than the original.

Additionally, both movies have eye-catching sets that hook in viewers immediately such as the dining room in “Glass Onion” with the many hidden Easter eggs in the artwork. That attention to detail made it stimulating and interesting the whole time.

Many sequels attempt to follow too closely to their counterpart and fall short. “Glass Onion” had big shoes to fill, with the original making 312.9 million dollars in the box office worldwide, and it did not fall short. Although it was only in theaters for a limited time, the fast growing movie will be released onto Netflix on December 23rd, where it is expected to continue to do well. The “Knives Out” series is contracted for a third movie, also starring Daniel Craig, where it will hopefully continue to provide the same high level of writing and entertainment for audiences yet to come.