I feel this film had a lot of hype around it and a lot of excitement, not only due to the success of the original but also seeing how they will continue the story especially with Daniel Craig’s loveable detective. So was it worth the hype?

Glass Onion continues to follow the detective from the first Knives Out film, Benoit Blanc, as he’s invited on a murder mystery weekend with a bunch of insane people who all seem to have some darkness within their lives. These people range from washed-up celebrities to governors and even engineers, but while this weekend away is meant to just be for fun, an actual murder takes place when one of the guests – a men’s right activist YouTuber – is shockingly killed and the murderer is one of the other guests.

What I loved about this film and I think I missed from watching the first Knives Out was the nuance and the slight of hand that we had in it. There were lots of misdirections and gaslighting that happens for the audience so you could clearly see murders happen and things play out but then because the actual characters will try to prove their Innocence it could easily make you wonder whether what you saw was real or whether you had misconstrued it.

This is definitely a film you have to watch more than once because of those moments where little Easter eggs and hidden gems were placed throughout it that piece together exactly what was going on and what was happening, but on the first view of course you don’t see it or expect to see it anyway. There were little moments that you could catch but so many more that you would miss and so watching it multiple times is definitely the way to go to really notice all of those moments and even the subtle hints to other areas of the film and Easter eggs that really you only notice when you confide in other people what you saw in the film and what they saw too.

I definitely feel this film was better than the first, maybe the murderer was a bit more obvious, maybe the characters were a bit more on the nose but the overall storyline and nuances within it were so fantastic that that’s what really made it. I feel a lot of the original film went over my head, while being a great film I didn’t see all those small slight of hands that I saw in this one, and so even watching this sequel it’s making me want to watch the original again just to try and find those moments that maybe I missed.

But that’s what we want from films, we want that rewatchability, we want to be able to watch them again and again and see things we missed the first time and this is a perfect example of that. It’s a brilliant cast, a brilliant storyline, the characters are fleshed out and interesting and very annoying and the murderer is a brilliant character if a bit on the nose. And having Daniel Craig back again was absolutely fantastic, I wasn’t sure about his accent in the first film but it’s certainly grown on me and I’m very excited to see if there will be more films in the series because I definitely think it is a series worth continuing.

This is a film for people who enjoy filmmaking, this is a film for people who want to find out the secrets and Easter eggs and hidden subtleties that others may miss. This is not a film for someone to put on in the background for some background noise and ignore, you need to sit down and watch it to really understand its brilliance, and while for some people it may go over their heads I hope for most it’s just obvious enough that you can see those moments and really relish and enjoy them and understand the craft that has been put into it. It’s overall a fantastic film and I am very excited to see where it goes next.

What do you think of Glass Onion?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding