Trap

This weekend, Trap, the newest film from M. Night Shyamalan, releases in theaters. Trap follows Cooper and his daughter, Riley, as they attend a concert by one of Riley's favorite singers. Cooper soon learns that the concert was set up as a huge trap to capture the serial killer known as The Butcher. M. Night Shyamalan's films are always hit or miss in terms of quality but are almost always interesting. The trailers for this movie really sold me on this film but I was also afraid that they gave away too much. I had to see this movie to see if there was more to it than the trailers let on.

Unfortunately, I found this movie to be a little underwhelming. However, there were still quite a few positives to it. I thought the movie nailed its tone. M. Night Shyamalan is known for making tense thrillers and this film is no exception. The first half of the movie is this tense escape thriller as we follow these characters and see them try and figure out how to escape the concert venue. I thought the first half was quite well done and could have been used throughout the movie. The second half then turns into this edge-of-your-seat thriller as you are unsure about what is going to happen next and what The Butcher is going to do. I also like how this movie is so simplistic. It doesn't get bogged down with any sort of drama and manages to maintain its escapist thriller for the entire run time. Easily the best part of the movie was Josh Hartnett. He does such a great job of portraying this seemingly normal dad that also has so dark elements to him. He really carries this movie and makes things quite tense.

While there are some great moments and ideas here, I feel that that trailer really gave away too much and hurt the film's quality. The trailer makes the odd decision of giving away the big twist of the film which causes the movie to have to reveal it about 10 minutes into the film. It just gave away way too much and completely ruined much of the intrigue of the film. If the trailer hadn't spoiled the movie, the film could have restructured a bit, made its big reveal about a third of the way through, and been much better for it. Because the trailer spoils the big twist, I was expecting there to be something more revealed in the movie which never happened. Ultimately, the main issue with this film isn't the movie itself, it is the marketing that effectively neutered the big thrills of the movie. Aside from that, I also felt that the movie had some large lapses in logic. The whole premise of the movie hinges on the FBI assuming the Butcher is at this concert but they have no idea what he looks like, what his name is, or where he is seated. The police are also shockingly inept which allows the killer to get away extremely easily. You really have to look past these logic issues to enjoy the film. Finally, I felt that some of the dialogue was a bit on the nose with where our characters need to go. It was stuff that nobody would just normally say but the movie needs them to say it so the characters how to get out of the building.

In the end, while this film has a very interesting premise, the trailers really dulled the thrills of the film by giving too much away. I did feel some of the thrills but was ultimately distracted by the lapses in logic.

Score: 6.5/10 Grade: B- Recommendation: Don't watch the trailers and wait to stream it