Trap Is... (REVIEW)
Trap Is... (REVIEW)
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00:00Appreciate you clicking on this video. I just got done watching M. Night Shyamalan's Trap,
00:04and with Trap this is the latest M. Night Shyamalan thriller.
00:07Following Josh Hartnett, who's playing a father, taking his daughter to a concert.
00:12Everything seems to be going lovely and fine until he notices
00:15there's an odd amount of security at this concert.
00:18When asking an employee at the concert what's going on,
00:20he's greeted with the information that they're after a serial killer in town,
00:25the Butcher, and this entire concert is a trap to try and find him.
00:29The twist? Josh Hartnett is the serial killer.
00:33Oh, that's all. I'll put him aside. I don't get any spoilers for you guys.
00:34This will be a spoiler-free review, and that's the premise of the movie.
00:38That's the trailer they gave you, letting you know right off the bat
00:41the serial killer is in the concert and the entire movie revolving around how he can escape.
00:47Oh man, I can tell you, while M. Night Shyamalan is definitely a controversial director,
00:51he's had some hits, he's had some misses.
00:53Whatever your feeling on him is, I know some feel more strongly than others,
00:56I am always excited for an M. Night Shyamalan movie
00:59because he just knows how to deliver a premise that sounds interesting.
01:03I thought old sounded really cool as a movie where you get older as you're on a beach,
01:07and when I went to watch that movie, I absolutely hated it.
01:10But ever since then, we've gotten other projects,
01:12and man, when the trailer came out for Trap,
01:15this idea of a serial killer trapped in a concert,
01:18and he has to play this mind game with the police to try and escape,
01:21bro, you hooked me in. What an awesome idea.
01:24And this seemed like an obvious slam dunk for M. Night Shyamalan.
01:27I'm like, okay, you got a great premise.
01:28You could do some cool stuff in there.
01:30Josh Hartnett looks fantastic in the trailers.
01:32What do you got for us?
01:34Is this gonna be one of your movies that lets people know M. Night Shyamalan is freaking back?
01:41No?
01:42But man, was this so close to greatness.
01:45Oh, I got so many thoughts on Trap and how I was so close to absolutely loving this movie.
01:51Let me get into the good about the movie.
01:52Starting off here, Josh Hartnett.
01:55Now, in playing the serial killer, the man is divine.
01:58He plays this character of not only a charming father
02:01just wanting to have a nice fun evening out with his daughter
02:05that quickly has to go into work mode,
02:07aka serial killer mode, once he finds out the police are after him.
02:11That switch back and forth from lovely father trying to have a fun time
02:14to serious serial killer was some of the best parts of Trap.
02:18Anytime his face went from happy smiling father to then dead serious
02:23paired along with the awesome cinematography of this movie.
02:26It looks really great.
02:27M. Night Shyamalan gets super creative with what you can do in this concert atmosphere.
02:32There's some great uses of light, but not only that,
02:35I had a real fun time all throughout the moments we were in this concert
02:39and Josh Hartnett as the butcher just trying to figure out ways to one up
02:43and gain information on top of the police.
02:46Like seriously, there was parts of this movie that felt like they were a video game.
02:49Like if you were playing a character and you had to collect items,
02:52get through security, do little distractions,
02:55just so you can obtain an objective.
02:57I got those vibes from Trapped and I loved every second of that.
03:00You know, I saw some people really disappointed when they found out
03:02the movie was going to be PG-13.
03:04Although most M. Night Shyamalan movies are PG-13,
03:07I feel like they do enough to keep that sinister thrilling vibe
03:11through enough of the movie.
03:12I'm not going to say the majority of it,
03:14but it was present through enough of the movie that I was just glued, man.
03:17I was hooked.
03:18The first 40, 50 minutes of this movie, I was like, this is a winner.
03:22M. Night Shyamalan is about to get so many people going,
03:26he's back, he's back.
03:28I'm back! I'm back!
03:31This character of the butcher, the way M. Night has written him
03:35and the way Josh Hartnett plays him,
03:36if they want to do a ton of prequel movies about his early life
03:40or even just a movie centered around the crimes he was doing outside of the concert,
03:45I would honestly watch those.
03:47Because regardless of how I think you walk away coming out of this movie,
03:50either really disappointed or maybe enjoying it enough,
03:53I think everybody can agree that just Josh Hartnett as the butcher
03:56is the best part of this film.
03:58Another thing I'm going to leave as a positive
04:00that I think is going to be a disappointment for some,
04:02but I think it's very much needed
04:03and it looks like M. Night is kind of easing us into this,
04:07I wouldn't say this movie has a twist.
04:10You know, M. Night Shyamalan has been drawn to that no matter what.
04:14In fact, whenever the trailers for this movie started playing around,
04:17I already saw all my movie mutuals trying to predict what the twist would be.
04:21Oh, is his daughter going to end up being the serial killer?
04:24Oh, I bet you he's not even the killer and the butcher's actually in the audience.
04:27What if he's a vampire?
04:29That was a real prediction I was seeing online.
04:32He's a vampire.
04:33But I think M. Night did something kind of clever
04:35in putting the twist up front and making that the beginning of the movie.
04:39Because although a lot of people thought it was a spoiler
04:42that the trailer revealed Josh Hartnett plays the killer,
04:44no, that's revealed pretty early on in the movie.
04:46They don't keep that a secret.
04:48And I think kind of shifting expectations,
04:50that just giving you this twist or letting you in on this premise ahead of time
04:54so you can just enjoy the ride is a route that I do prefer M. Night to be on.
04:58Because I think having your entire filmography built on
05:01what's your twist going to be?
05:03Is it going to blow our minds?
05:04And having that always be in the back of moviegoers' minds when seeing the movie,
05:07I don't think is always a wise move.
05:09You set yourself up for a lot of failure there.
05:11Now, that's not to say there isn't any reveals in the movie.
05:13There are some reveals and you find out some information you didn't know.
05:16But I wouldn't say any of the reveals or stuff that happens
05:19is on the level of a, oh, what a twist.
05:22So keep that in mind when watching the film.
05:23It's pretty straightforward.
05:24And, you know, now I guess is where I move into the mix to negative.
05:27Now, something that I was mixed on that I was quite enjoying
05:30for the first half of this movie is M. Night is kind of known
05:35for this cheesy dialogue or just sometimes this cheesy humor peeks through.
05:40Sometimes that cheese factor and silliness overtakes a movie completely,
05:44like The Happening, where it just makes the entire movie feel like a parody
05:48and a nonsensical, while other times it adds a bit of charm.
05:51And Trap is no different.
05:53It has this kind of cheesy, silly factor.
05:55There's sometimes dialogue that is said awkwardly
05:58or characters that act a little bit more exaggerated than they should.
06:02It didn't completely take away from some of the serious or thrilling moments,
06:05but it for sure was noticeable until it was too noticeable.
06:09Bringing me now into some of my negatives.
06:11Look, for the first two thirds or even half of this movie,
06:14like I said, hooked in, really loving it.
06:17And then we get to some really odd plot points.
06:20Some of you might have known M. Night Shyamalan has his daughter in this movie.
06:25She plays Lady Raven, the woman who's giving the concert
06:28and the celebrity in this universe.
06:30And for a moment, that outside perspective paired along with the theme
06:34of some of the things Trap was touching upon,
06:36I thought was a really sweet move.
06:38Because I mean, this movie, for a point, is about a father and a daughter
06:42just trying to enjoy their day at a concert, have a good time together.
06:46And you are enjoying those moments between father and daughter,
06:48where Josh Hartnett is telling a couple of dad jokes
06:50and the daughter's all excited to be with her pops
06:53and she's having trouble at school and her dad's helping her out.
06:56It's like really sweet moments.
06:57And just to know behind the scenes, M. Night also put his daughter in the movie
07:01and has her as the celebrity doing the concert.
07:04It's like, oh, this double layered thing.
07:06Trap is almost like a tribute to M. Night and his daughters.
07:09I was like, oh, that's kind of sweet.
07:11And then they leaned a little too far in that
07:14and M. Night's daughter becomes a larger plot of the movie.
07:17And all those elements where this celebrity singer in the movie
07:21becomes a larger part of the film.
07:24It lost me, man.
07:25I really hate to be a dick because I know if I was a father
07:28and I had that position of power
07:29and I could cast my own future daughter in a movie,
07:32doing it in a heartbeat, don't care what you say.
07:34So I totally get M. Night doing this, but man, she's no actress.
07:39I hear she actually is a singer in real life.
07:42And though M. Night's kind of trying to prop up her singing career in this movie,
07:45which, hey, I don't blame you, daddy.
07:47Do what you need to for your daughter.
07:50But no offense, she's not the greatest actress.
07:53And that just kind of sticks out like a sore thumb
07:55for a lot of the movie when she's a focus of it.
07:58It also feels just like such a late edition character
08:01to shift away the focus from this father-daughter pairing
08:04that seemed like the obvious theme of the movie
08:06and then kind of getting rid of that and focusing now on the director's daughter.
08:10And then moving past that, I was talking about this movie had a bit of silliness to it.
08:14Some cheese, a little bit of lighthearted humor.
08:16That silliness and cheese just gets cranked up to 10 in the third act
08:20and it becomes ridiculously silly and foolish.
08:23There's a lot of things in here that kind of make you cringe
08:26from secondhand embarrassment,
08:28or you could just feel like the plot is stretching in all kinds of ways
08:31and it's starting to overstay its welcome.
08:34It feels like if this movie was honestly 20, 30 minutes shorter,
08:37you'd have a much more solid movie.
08:39And also if it stayed focused on the direction it was going in,
08:43because then it just really goes off the rails
08:45and in different directions in that third act.
08:47And it feels like that ends up always being the recurring problem
08:50with M. Night Shyamalan, right?
08:51He's got a great premise.
08:52He delivers on a lot of those promises
08:54and things you were hoping for to see with the premise,
08:57but it's nailing that third act, that finale,
09:00wrapping everything up in a nice bow,
09:02and those are the parts that really stand out about this movie.
09:05And again, what's so frustrating about it with Trap
09:07is this movie was just like a few plot points
09:10and just cutting down some of that stuff from being a great movie.
09:14Probably an all-timer for M. Night, if I'm being honest.
09:16Because even throughout some of these messy parts in the third act
09:19and it's shifting focus from this character to this character,
09:22this story point and that story point,
09:24all throughout it, Josh Hartnett is still killing it as the butcher, man.
09:27And this guy is like,
09:28dude, I just want to keep seeing stuff with you involved,
09:30because you're playing that role really well.
09:32So yeah, there's a slight bit of disappointment with me
09:35when it comes to Trap,
09:36because the movie was something I was really excited about
09:39from the looks of all those trailers.
09:41And when most of the movie turned out being great,
09:43I hate that the finale didn't turn out being exactly what I was hoping.
09:46If you're someone who's not a fan of M. Night Shyamalan's work,
09:50this isn't going to be a movie to change your mind.
09:52This is going to end up being some of the stuff that you dislike from him.
09:54But I think fans of M. Night
09:56are still going to find lots of enjoyment with this,
09:58because I'm not willing to say the movie was awful.
10:00Still a lot to enjoy,
10:02and Josh Hartnett's performance alone makes it worth a watch.
10:05But it's overall that frustrating factor that,
10:07man, if you just would have changed this and this about the ending
10:10and didn't focus so much about that,
10:12dude, could have been close to a 9 out of 10, 10 out of 10 movie.
10:16So when it comes to Trap, I'm going to give action two stars.
10:18Since a lot of this movie takes place at a concert
10:21and the character has to figure out sneaky ways to get around the cops,
10:24there's not like much fighting or car chase sequences or anything like that.
10:28But the few things that this butcher does to distract the police,
10:30I thought were entertaining.
10:31Comedy in the movie, I'm going to give it three stars.
10:33Some of that is for intentional humor thrown into the movie,
10:36you know, like the little bits of dad jokes Josh Hartnett throws out.
10:39But then there's other times of just awful dialogue,
10:42poor acting, and just some really silly characters that get you laughing
10:47when I don't think the movie was trying to make you laugh.
10:49Drama in the movie, I'm going to give it three stars.
10:51And that's mainly due to this butcher character and Josh Hartnett's performance
10:55that really has you glued in and interested.
10:58Unfortunately, that plot and everything going on falls apart towards the end.
11:02But for the most part, it is interesting to see unfold.
11:04Horror in the movie, I'll give one star too,
11:06because this is PG-13, they did hold back on some stuff.
11:10I think you still have a great sinister atmosphere with Josh Hartnett.
11:13And there really is only like one horrific thing that happens to a person,
11:16but still pretty tamed for a horror movie.
11:18Three stars for suspense.
11:20I would have liked to have given it more,
11:22but it's that third act and the movie continuing on past a certain point
11:26that where it just doesn't feel that necessary.
11:28Starts to really lose that suspense and kind of go all over the place.
11:32Characters that were important become irrelevant,
11:34new people become important, and they jump back and forth.
11:37Casual moviegoers, I'm going to give this a B+.
11:40I think it still has you hooked on for most of the movie.
11:42Cinephiles, I'm going to give it a B minus,
11:45especially those who are hoping for some sort of huge big M. Night Shyamalan twist.
11:49They're going to be disappointed when there really is an even one.
11:51And critics, I'm going to give it a C+.
11:53While they're going to enjoy Josh Hartnett's performance
11:55and the cinematography of this movie,
11:57I think the story and silliness factor
11:59is really going to deter some critics from enjoying this one.
12:02So overall for Trapped, this isn't M. Night Shyamalan at his worst.
12:05It's close to him at his best.
12:07That paired with enough of the saving graces of the movie,
12:09like Josh Hartnett's performance,
12:11I think it's worth watching in theaters.
12:15Again, that's just my opinion on the movie, guys,
12:18but I'd love to hear from you.
12:19It turned out just to be enjoyable when I thought it was so close to greatness.
12:23But did you guys hate it, love it?
12:24I'd love to hear your thoughts down below.
12:26Don't forget to like, subscribe, follow me on Twitter at 3CFilms
12:28or on TikTok at 3CFilms.
12:29But as always, I'm Chris.
12:31Take care.