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Glass Onion is an odd title. I was sure going in that it would be a metaphor of some kind; you know, something you have to peel away even though you can immediately see to the heart of it, like a glass onion.

It isn’t though, it is the name of a huge building at the heart of the exotic location where the story takes place. That is this film all over though, they’d never go for a subtle little play on words when you can have a gigantic great glazed bulb vegetable in the middle of a beautifully Greek island? Yep, given every available opportunity to take things as large as conceivably possible, this movie goes for it. It is all a far cry from the intimate little family house thriller that it follows.

Glass Onion isn’t the first film to go all out with the sequel to a modest little movie that became a surprise hit. Take Romero’s Dawn of the Dead or Clerks II, Desperado, The Raid 2 and even Terminator 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. All of them have bigger budgets, more ambition and an unbridled confidence that could not be afforded before. In fact taking just those last two illustrates the two extreme ways in which this can go; either you get a masterpiece of modern cinema or you get a bloated, brash mess that ignores the simple charm that made its predecessor a success.

Well, with all of its bombast Glass Onion also ramps up the fun. It isn’t a masterpiece but it is a great night out at the cinema. (Note, you’ve only got a week starting today. After that it will disappear for a month before resurfacing on Netflix at Christmas.) Like its predecessor it features a big name cast and once again each of them brings it. Comparing it to Knives Out you do feel the loss of Ana de Armas in particular but one of the new cast effectively takes on her role here, being the woman working with detective Benoit Blanc in solving the crime they themselves are involved in. Daniel Craig’s Blanc is the only returning character and like everything else his restraint the gone but he remains a compelling person to spend time with. Actor Noah Segan is back too but in different part. The gag here is that Segan is in all of director Rian Johnson’s movies and in this one he is literally just in it, no more no less. You’ll see what I mean once you’ve seen the film.

Johnson writes again as well and his script and story are as sharp as before. The movie opens with a complex sequence that deftly introduces most of the key players before paying off in a brilliant visual gag and then it just builds and builds from there until it comes to a crescendo in a properly manic denouement.

Of course unlike those part ones and twos mentioned earlier, this film was always planned as a possible series. Johnson long had an idea that Knives Out would only be the first case for his new screen sleuth and sure enough a third movie is on the way too. It is hard to know where this could possibly go now, it’s going to struggle to go bigger or even to sustain this tempo but i for one am keen to see that mystery solved. I’m sure they’ll move mountains to make it a worthy follow up though, and perhaps that won’t be a metaphor either.

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The Ripley Factor:

Okay, I’m avoiding spoilers here so discussing the female characters in any detail is going to be tricky. In a central cast of nine, five of them are women and it was six out of thirteen last time so the percentage has gone up. Not of all of them are unimpeachable women but none are stereotypes either and one of them, not saying who, turns out to be brave, honourable and uncompromising.