After the wild success of 2019´s ¨Knives Out,¨ Netflix bought the rights for over 400 million dollars and greenlit two sequels. The first of those sequels is “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” which had a limited release in theaters from November 23rd to the 29th, before releasing on Netflix December 23rd. 

The film is once again written and directed by Rian Johnson and stars Daniel Craig returning as Detective Benoit Blanc, along with Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr, Janelle Monae, Dave Bautista, Jessica Henwick and Madelyn Cline. It tells the story of tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton). He invites his closest friends to his private island for a murder mystery party, until someone actually turns up dead. The buzz behind this long awaited sequel raised the question: is it worth streaming?

As a point of reference, I found the original Knives Out to be a great and refreshing whodunnit, keeping me engaged from beginning to end.  With that being said, when they announced they were doing two more sequels for Netflix, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. More whodunnit movies sounded great to me, but I didn’t want sequels to a previously existing one, especially if they were going to rehash the plot of original. As time passed and the cast was revealed, I got pretty excited as the film looked like it was going to be doing something different from the first. Soon enough “Glass Onion” became one of my most anticipated movies of the year.

The best aspect of this film was that it was yet again another great mystery with twists and turns all throughout the film. Just like the original “Knives Out”, Glass Onion has a great aesthetic and a modern feel, while also capturing what made the original such a great movie. I particularly enjoyed the fact that Rian Johnson tried something different with this film rather than rehashing a plot similar to the original. While it still is a whodunnit style mystery, the storytelling is non linear. The setting is a private island and the film features a lot more comedy than the original. Another great aspect of this movie was the incredibly stacked cast. I felt that everyone in this movie did a great job in their roles, however, for me, the standouts were Daniel Craig and Janelle Monae. After watching Glass Onion, Daniel Craig as Detective Benoit Blanc is one of my new favorite movie characters. From the way Daniel Craig portrays the characters’ accent, to his mannerisms makes for an interesting and distinct character that steals every scene that he’s in. Janelle Monae’s character also gave a fantastic performance. She had a great deal of emotion to her character and played a much bigger role in the film than I was expecting.

Honestly, I don’t have many negatives critiques on the film, however, I do think that at times the comedy was a little much. Additionally, an there was one “big reveal” in the plot line that I saw coming a mile away.

Overall, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”, wonderfully captures what made the original so fresh and unique by doing something different with the whodunnit, murder mystery genre. I found the film to be just as good as the original and a sequel done right! For some, it might not be as good as Knives Out, but fans of the original and whodunnits in general, are going to highly enjoy this movie from beginning to end.