The First Reviews For ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ Gush About The Rian Johnson Sequel: ‘Make More Movies Like This’

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the highly anticipated second installment in Rian Johnson‘s burgeoning Benoit Blanc detective series, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and, appropriately, it killed. As the first round of reviews pour in, critics are loving not just Daniel Craig’s return as Blanc, but Johnson’s stellar hand at putting together yet another madcap cast of murder suspects. (Seriously, this film is stacked with talent.)

You can see what critics are saying below, and don’t worry, the excerpts are spoiler-free. There will be very little revealed in the way of plot, but a whole revealed in praise for yet another satisfying whodunnit from Johnson.

Mike Ryan, Uproxx:

Glass Onion is just a great time watching a movie. It’s a rare movie (especially at a film festival where I have places I have to be) in which I wished it were longer. I would have gladly spent more time with these characters, played by actors who are all obviously having a wonderful time. I already miss them. Make more movies like this. What fun.

Caryn James, BBC:

Where the original depended on the oddball family members-turned-murder suspects being investigated by Benoit Blanc, Craig’s hilariously over-the-top world-famous detective, Glass Onion relies on the plot’s secrets, lies, misunderstandings and mistaken identities. Filled with delicious cameos and loaded with more comic moments than the previous film.

Alison Willmore, Vulture:

Movies taking place during the early days of our global acquaintanceship with the novel coronavirus have tended to all feel the same, because so many of us were just sitting at home, feeling frightening and isolated and terribly bored. But the characters in Glass Onion aren’t the kind that would feel like they’d be subjected to those same rules, even the ones who consider themselves nominally more responsible. They’re basically doing a short, and very high-end, version of forming a pod, accelerating right into the dramas that accompany the meltdown of so many similar arrangements.

Owen Gleiberman, Variety:

Is “Glass Onion” a better movie than the first “Knives Out” Not necessarily. But it’s a bigger, showier, even more elaborately multi-faceted shell-game mystery. Craig has figured out how to let his wry performance sneak up on you all over again, and the suspects hover in a tasty zone between toxic and sympathetic.

Benjamin Lee, The Guardian:

Johnson’s more extravagant and often indulgent sequel will likely find those who prefer it to the original, it’s so stuffed with so much that it’ll surely prove more fun to those who appreciate getting more bang for their buck. It’s hard not to have fun when Johnson pulls the strings, I just wish he’d not pulled quite so many and quite so hard.

Kate Erbland, IndieWire:

Johnson needn’t worry about a sophomore slump, because while “Glass Onion” holds some resemblance to his 2019 smash hit (stacked casts, lavish locations, Daniel Craig having the time of his goddamn life), this sequel is zippily and zanily its own thrill ride, and Johnson can’t churn these babies out fast enough.

John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter:

This picture offers more action, more delicious comeuppances, more daring design and a few genuinely surprising cameos just for good measure. Yet it doesn’t suffer from the usual “give ’em the same thing, but more of it” bloat common in sequels to surprise hits. Its ensemble is more varied than Knives‘, and its critique of the clueless rich more relevant to our age.

Kristy Puchko, Mashable:

Rian Johnson is single-handedly reviving the whodunnit genre. Sure, Kenneth Branagh’s been churning out Hercule Poirot adaptations busting at the seams with big names. But where Branagh’s detective movies are fondly looking back at the past through a tediously romantic (and self-indulgent) lens, Johnson’s original stories use the framework of an Agatha Christie novel to create something exhilaratingly new, with fresh surprises, a gleeful wit, and a lively social commentary.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery premieres December 23 on Netflix.