Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, releasing on Netflix December 23rd, spent one week in  theaters around Thanksgiving weekend. The original Knives Out was acclaimed upon release, and so is the sequel. And for good reason; solid mystery movies are difficult to come by, with the Death on the Nile movie from earlier this year being an indescribable disappointment. 

   Luckily, Glass Onion is far different. It’s edge of your seat suspenseful, it’s fascinating, it’s ridiculous, but most importantly it’s fun. Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is invited to the private island of a rich, eccentric billionaire (Edward Norton) for a weekend to play a murder mystery game. 

   As you can imagine, the mystery becomes more complicated than any of the guests expect. 

   Director and writer Rian Johnson has created another fascinating mystery, with a plot twist that changes the entire story. It’s funny, it’s shocking, it’s everything that the original was. It’s more grand, the locations are more expensive, it’s a more daring effort.

   Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc is as hilarious as ever, and Ed Norton’s mysterious billionaire elicits many laughs throughout the story. It’s certainly worth watching.

   Yet, considering the perfection of the original movie, does this compare?

   It doesn’t hold a candle. 

   While they contain many of the same elements, the Hercule Poirot-inspired series was far more interesting in its original film. 

   By broadening its scope, the film has lost its authenticity. Ignoring its similarities to both Poirot stories Death on the Nile and Peril at End House, the characters were not as alluring or grabbing as the original. While these characters are all close to one another, the original film had the classic mystery feeling that Glass Onion lacked.

   As much as tropical Benoit was enjoyable, the location hurt the film’s mysterious feeling, and the characters failed to make up for it. In the original movie, Benoit had to investigate a wealthy family concerning the death of its patriarch. The new film’s character dynamics fail to live up to the interesting dysfunction of the original.

   And then there’s the thematic depth. Many of the themes are shared; both are films that insult wealth and those who bask in it, who have no true understanding of the world and no integrity. However, the original film had a more complex analysis as it showed this wealth through the eyes of a lower-middle class nurse. 

   The Knives Out sequel is worthwhile, make no mistake, but it does not top the mystery of the original, the character dynamics and the development of the mystery. Glass Onion draws us closer to Benoit than the suspects. He is no longer an observer in the mystery, but a participant. While it may make for more dramatic storytelling, it takes away from the theme, as well as the mystery itself. 

  Overall rating: 4/5