Following up on the critically acclaimed Knives Out was always going to be a tricky proposition. Ejecting the prior movie's cast -- save for the central character -- and relocating to an entirely new setting, Glass Onion was a gamble, but its success could prove the franchise has real legs. Luckily for everyone involved, it does just that. Bigger and more bombastic than its predecessor, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a strong and consistently entertaining film, elevated by a cast who knows exactly what they're doing -- and are having a blast doing it.

As in the previous film, the central moving force of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), a morally-driven detective who, during the height of pandemic lockdowns, is bored out of his mind. This means when he gets an invitation to the private island of tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton), Blanc jumps at the chance to come to the island -- only to discover Bron didn't invite him and that someone might actually be trying to hurt the billionaire. All of that is further complicated when it turns out all of his other guests have plenty of reason to come after him.

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The rest of the party is largely a collection of Bron's old friends -- politician Claire (Kathryn Hahn), scientist Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.), model Birdie (Kate Hudson), streamer Duke (Dave Bautista), Birdie's assistant Peg (Jessica Henwick), and Duke's girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline). The one person no one expected to see join them, though, is Andi (Janelle Monáe), a former member of the clique who had been Bron's business partner until she was cut out of the company completely. Bron intends to throw a murder mystery party for his friends -- but things soon take a lethal turn, as secrets abound on the island that could do more than just risk their lives.

Like its predecessor, Glass Onion proves to be a solid murder mystery story, jumping from plot thread to character reveal with ease and clarity. For a movie with such a large cast, each with their own motivations and plans, it would have been easy for the mystery to become a jumble. Thanks to Rian Johnson's strong script and fantastic direction, the film all hangs together even as things continue to become more chaotic. While the film loses some of the deliberate focus the previous Knives Out had, it's replaced with an entertainingly bombastic nature that escalates the absurdity without losing touch of the film's implicit humanity.

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The cast is clearly having a blast playing a bunch of "disrupters" who will snipe at each other just as quickly as help them, particularly Norton and Hudson -- who make meals out of their purposefully performative roles. Bautista finds a uniquely complex approach to what on paper could have been a straightforward character, while the rest of the cast acquaint themselves well with their surroundings. Craig is once again perfectly endearing as Blanc, keeping the detective deliberately charming and genuinely cutting -- especially when he gets to play up a scene for laughs. The MVP of the film is Monae, whose take on Andi is impossible to discuss without spoiling much of the film's sprawling mysteries. Suffice it to say, she finds herself with a deceptively tricky task that she accomplishes with gusto.

Glass Onion moves at an agreeable clip, keeping enough balls in the air that viewers might have real trouble figuring out the culprit -- even if the mystery itself, when revealed in full, proves to be a compelling storyline that draws on plenty of minor elements hidden throughout the film. All of this is coupled with some genuinely funny and often awe-inspiring cinematography by Steve Yedlin, who helps elevate Johnson's whip-fast direction and pacing. In many ways, Glass Onion is a much bigger film than Knives Out, and as a result, loses some of that focused energy at the heart of that film. However, its bombastic approach and exploration of similar themes through a different lens work exceptionally well. Glass Onion is a solid follow-up to one of the best original mainstream films of the last five years and is well worth a visit.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery hits select theaters on Nov. 23 and premieres on Netflix on Dec. 23.