REVIEW:
Here’s the thing about M Night Shamalyan movies. And it’s really been the case ever since Signs, the last of his original three (the last of his breakout trilogy,)… his movies are all premise and no follow through. In other words, he has an interesting idea for a premise, but has no concepcion of how to follow it through to an ending. He doesn’t know how to land the plane. And it’s not just that his endings are bad, it’s more like the whole second halves of his movies. He used to be the master of the twist ending, and now he’s become the exact opposite. Now the ending is his weakness.
Such is the case with his latest movie, Trap, but it was also the case with other recent films he’s made like Old. In that one, the premise was an island where people rapidly age, and can’t find a way to escape. Great idea. Now how do you follow it through to make an entire movie? That one was actually ok, although the ending was definitely weak. In the case of Trap, it’s the whole second half that really falls apart.
The premise is that there’s a father taking his daughter to a concert. Only there’s more than just a concert going on here. The entire show is actually a stakeout by the FBI to try to catch a serial killer. They got a tip that the killer would be at the concert, and so they’re staking the place out. And do half the movie takes place at the concert, with the killer trying different ways to escape, despite being there with his teenage daughter.
That first half works. It isn’t great or anything (conversations feel way too awkward and people easily tell this guy much more confidential information than they should,) but still, just the way the venue is used and how he keeps exhausting different possibilities is kind of fun. But then the movie leaves the concert and it suddenly plummets downhill. The second half is beyond redeemable. If the gimmick or appeal of this movie was that it was all at a concert, then it should have stayed there for the entire film. There were plenty of more opportunities and areas around the arena that could have been explored. But breaking that contract… that deal of what this movie is supposed to be, and what is supposed to get cool about it, breaks the momentum and changes the entire story. As a result, we have a pretty lousy movie that has a decent first half.