Review - Glass : Glass half empty in limp end to supernatural trilogy

Those familiar with the work of M.Night Shyamalan will now that his career in film resembles somewhat of a rollercoaster ride with the heights of such features as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable followed by the lows of The Happening and After Earth. Lately however has seen a resurgence in the director's career with The Visit and in particular the 2017 film Split gaining critical and popular acclaim for this "marmite" film maker.
On the back of an extremely intriguing ending to Split, I ventured to Tralee Omniplex to catch the final part in this supernatural trilogy, Glass and wondered which M. Night Shyamalan would I get ?
The reality was that I got neither, in a feature that never really hits the heights of any of it's predecessors in the series, Unbreakable or Split yet thankfully never sinks to previous depths of mediocrity either.
Following the conclusion of Split, Glass finds Dunn (Bruce Willis) pursuing Kevin Wendell Crumb's (James McAvoy) superhuman figure of The Beast in a series of escalating encounters, while the shadowy presence of Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men.
As comfortable as Shyamalan is with setting an air mystery and the unknown, I can;t help but get the feeling in Glass that as chuffed as he was reintroducing the characters from Unbreakable towards the end of Split that he never really thought through what to actually do with them in this film.
James McAvoy's multi-layered performance in Split was central to the success of the movie, yet seems jaded and overplayed here. Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson perform credibly in what is scant source material and the whole production seems to move at a pedestrian pace for a lot of it's near two hour running time.
As in all his movies, the director does surprise us with the showstopping big reveal towards the end and to M.Night Shyamalan's credit, this reveal along with competent cast performances (despite any real emotional weight) does salvage Glass to a certain degree.
However as the end credits role , I can;t help but feel that this was yet again somewhat of  a missed opportunity to bring the intriguing supernatural series to a more triumphant end and the search for M.Night Shyamalan's mojo continues in earnest!
✸✸1/2