Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Sika Shyamalan
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: 2 August 2024 (USA)
Plot Overview
Trap is written and directed by ight Shyamalan and sees the return of Josh hartnet as a leading man which the ’90s version of me is very happy about right now and this film is about a father and daughter who are attending a concert along with 30,000 other fans as the concert gets underway the father begins to look around and realize there’s a very heavy police presence and that’s because this entire concert is actually a trap.
Review – Trap
the cops were tipped off that a serial killer is going to be there and it just so happens that that father played by Harnet is that serial killer you guys probably know how much M Night shamalan means to me as a filmmaker I simply would not be sitting here talking to you guys if it wasn’t for him so every time a new movie from him comes out I get extremely excited and I can’t wait to go see the film it’s kind of like a religious experience for me but you also never know exactly what you’re going to get going in especially on first viewing because you’re always sort.
Josh Hartnett’s Performance
Trap of second guessing the film because shyamalan’s name is so synonymous with stories that start as one thing and become something else when it comes to trap this is his most traditional Thriller perhaps ever this feels like it could have come out right after The Negotiator with Samuel L Jackson and somewhere in between out of time with Denzel Washington this is a fast-paced movie in which one guy is thrown into a Boiling Pot of water and you get to watch him try to escape and every where he goes is danger but shyamalan’s angle
on this story is also unique because you’re following the serial killer and you’re meant to like him you’re meant to actually fall in love with this guy and Josh Hartnett makes that very easy he is so good in this movie immensely charismatic and likable and he’s mastered that way of dealing with people where on the outside he looks very personable as he’s talking to a lot of these people at the concert trying to find out information about what’s going on but on the inside just behind his
Sika Shyamalan’s Role
Trap eyes you can tell that something else is going on and he sells this character so well you want him to escape you actually care about this guy who is a sociopathic serial killer which is very very difficult to pull off you have characters like Patrick baitman played by Christian Bale not so much a serial killer but Jake Gyllenhaal is Lou Bloom of course Tom Cruz in collateral you have these very likable and charismatic people who are doing awful things and I think in most cases with a character that complex and difficult for an
Critique of the Plot
Trap audience to swallow it really does come down to Casting and Josh hartnet knocks it out of the park what’s also equally impressive is Sika Shyamalan who plays lady Raven the woman everyone’s going to this concert to see she sings all of these songs herself and even more impressively she wrote all of them she has crafted an entire album for this movie and it’s a concert that the cameras are clearly putting us in the perspective of the concert goers because you don’t really get close-ups of her
you only ever see the stage from the perspective of Harnet and his daughter if he gets closer to the stage then so do we and everything from the sound design to the stage performers to the way the cameras on stage cut in between cela’s performance it feels like a real concert the idea that the cops have essentially created an entire concert to capture one serial killer is probably going to rub some people the wrong way and I could totally see a lot of people saying that it doesn’t make sense that it’s unbelievable that it’s too
Production and Cinematic Experience
Trap far-fetched and I’m not going to say that they’re wrong I will say though that that’s the plot of the movie and that’s what the trailer says and that’s what this movie is being sold as and it delivers that so if you buy a ticket for this movie you’re basically entering into a contract with the movie saying I buy your plot and I want to see what you do with it I’ll also say that the film is somewhat inspired by a true story known as operation Flagship we’re over 100 wanted fugitives were invited to
Convention Center under the pretense that they were going to get free tickets to the Super Bowl so I don’t really find it that far-fetched but at the same time when I want to watch a thrill a minute movie I don’t want to like watch some normal thing in somebody’s life like today they went out and got into some trouble like I want to watch something that feels heightened that feels like a thriller that would have come out in the 9s which trap in every way does right down to the fact that it was shot on
Trap film and there’s a massive amount of background actors which is something you don’t really see that much anymore or Studios have gone out of their way to do CG background actors or even AI background actors the fact that this movie has so many background Talent really makes it feel bigger and that’s something that I’ve noticed a lot when I watch films from basically 2015 and back background Talent really make movies feel big and modern day films just don’t care to utilize them I mean I was
watching My Best Friend’s Wedding the other day this is so Random I know but there’s a scene at a baseball stadium where Julia Roberts and dermit morrone are talking and that really is like a gigantic crowd of people at a baseball stadium for this dialogue scene with two characters nowadays that type of money would never be spent on a scene like that but when you look at that movie it feels gigantic it feels like this is why we go to the movies and when I was watching trap today that’s how I felt I
felt like this is a theater experience this is utilizing all of the surround channels I really I’m hearing the crowd I’m hearing the music but at the same time it’s really singular on its focus on Josh hartnet and his ordeal and it asks you to get behind him as he continuously pulls off risk after risk sometimes very gutsy things like walking through a crowd of cops and just starting to talk to them a filmmaker like Shyamalan who’s made so many original movies often movies that are based around faith has largely avoided
Conclusion
the IP Studio system for almost 30 years now this is the type of movie that I feel like we’re often asking Hollywood to make and and they’re not making we want more original movies we want straightforward Thrillers or action movies we don’t need everything to have a message and we like movies just being what they are and that’s what trap is and it might not work for you but it worked exceedingly well for me so as a lifelong Shyamalan fan I’m very happy today guys thank you so much.