Trap Review: M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film is a tone-deaf mess

trapThe concept for “The Stranger Tides” sounded like it was tailor-made to play to M. Night Shyamalan’s quirky strengths, even speaking to an era when superstars are turning concerts into cinematic events. But despite its promise, the thriller quickly lost steam. Shyamalan’s latest is a mixed failure that, despite some intriguing ideas, doesn’t quite manage to shake off the impression of being a notable downturn in the director’s filmography.

In the first act, trap It introduces good-natured father Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett) and his daughter Riley (Ariel Donahue) as they head downtown to see superstar Lady Raven (Sareka Shyamalan) in concert. Cooper himself doesn’t quite get the appeal of the singer, but to his daughter, she’s everything. Riley is having trouble with her friends at school, so Cooper is thrilled to distract himself with a few hours of live music.

Most people who meet the Adamses see them as just a father-daughter duo excited to watch a show, but Cooper has a secret: he’s a serial killer, and he’s locking his next victim in a dungeon. You can feel the influence of a serial killer show. you and Dexter By method trap The film juxtaposes mundane family moments with shots of Cooper furtively glancing at his phone to watch a livestream of the man he plans to kill next. But Shyamalan’s twist is trap It is revealed that the Lady Raven concert was actually an elaborate ploy to get rid of Cooper.

trap Get inspired Operation FlagshipIn a 1985 sting operation, U.S. marshals and Washington, D.C. police lured wanted criminals into the Washington Convention Center with the promise of free football tickets. Shyamalan cites this real history to imagine how a Taylor Swift-like concert filled with thousands of screaming teenagers could be used as a weapon against the monsters. trap Having gone through that thought experiment, the film soon finds itself trapped by its core concept.

Part of the problem is trap In a surprising twist for a Shyamalan film, Cooper makes frequent trips to the “merch booth” to find out how the police are going to catch him — the cops drag men out of the stands and won’t let them leave without questioning them — but none of these dangers are particularly pressing for Cooper, because the plot armor that Shyamalan is forced to layer over him allows him to dodge them with ease.

The oddities of Cooper’s behavior should be interpreted as part of his sociopathy, as seen in his repeated escapes from his daughter at concerts. Have For a movie to be truly moving, there has to be an escape, otherwise things end abruptly. trap Cooper’s situation becomes increasingly difficult to take seriously as it forces him to attempt a series of increasingly ridiculous, but no less exciting, subterfuge to evade capture.

Cooper’s navigation method is absurd. trapThe cat-and-mouse game of “The Devil May Cry” feels like Shyamalan’s trying to say something about the kind of people we deem a threat to society: Hartnett has no charisma as Cooper, and there’s an unintentional awkwardness to his interactions with Reilly, but he’s a handsome white man, and that seems enough to keep people from noticing his blatant weirdness.

If fewer of Cooper’s escape tricks in the film were the result of convenient coincidences; trap It might work a little better as a straightforward predator-turned-prey thriller, but the film does too many absurd things to keep the story going, and it feels like Shyamalan ran out of solid ideas early on.

all trap, From the story to the portrayal of the daughter’s career as a musician, it feels like a fitting film for director Shyamalan. Since 2015, he has often self-financed his films.The director himself makes a cameo appearance as Lady Raven’s uncle, and is part of the story as Cooper searches for an escape route. However, Shyamalan’s presence is a bit distracting. trapThe characters speak to the camera in the sweet, sappy manner that the director prefers.

Conceptually, this is one of Shyamalan’s most interesting films, but its foundations are so limited that it feels like the director has set a trap for himself, which is a testament to his ability to come up with original ideas, but that aren’t necessarily enough to make for an enjoyable time at the cinema.