Trap

"4⭐️ For half this movie I thought I wasn’t the right demographic, plus under the impression I signed up for some light horror, as advertised. It decidedly isn’t, but ~ SURPRISE ~ did turn out to be immensely watchable! It starts out feeling a little too light, forcefully comedic at times. Josh’s acting was turning me off at this point, along with the mom and merch guy..too forced. The concert sequences, just alright. While I do think Saleka Shyamalan is very talented, there’s a sense of superstar level charisma a la Lady Gaga et al, the source emulation, that’s lacking. Only my opinion, and I guess I can’t blame MNS for the nepotism, proud papa he surely is. I truly think he made this film FOR her. The whole auditorium segment could have spent less time focused on the performances, teen drama, etc., and more building believable suspense to impart a greater level of tense discomfort going into the second half. But that second half makes up for it. * Possible Mild Spoilers * Here it moves from thriller 101 for preteens into a highly suspenseful, tension-filled, psychological family drama. The tone shifts, turning slightly darker and the stakes viscerally higher. Josh’s acting also shifts from odd and creepily perky (irl anyone, everyone(!) WOULD think something’s off with this guy), into subtly layered and intensely desperate. Sure there’s plenty of plot holes but by now I was completely invested in the cat and mouse aspect. It would only have benefitted perhaps from a couple of childhood flashbacks to flesh that out. I also would’ve loved seeing more of Hayley Mills’ profiler. So MNS is hit or miss for me. My favorite, probably UNBREAKABLE. Underappreciated genius there. But SIGNS .. just nope. TRAPPED falls somewhere in the middle for me. Not his best work but definitely extremely entertaining and fun. No deep meaning save for some mommy issues. Just suspend some disbelief, jump in and have a good time. "

"I was initially excited to see this movie but was ultimately disappointed. There are way too many plot holes. One can only be expected to suspend disbelief so many times, before you have to involuntarily roll your eyes, throw your hands up, and say "Oh, come on!". Also, this movie is a clear example of nepotism with M. Night Shyamalan's daughter being such a central part of the story. She is a talented singer but her acting is more than questionable. Josh Hartnett is the saving grace for this film. His performance was exceptional in spite of the disappointing storyline. The hard part about being M. Night Shyamalan is, everyone (myself included) is always going to compare your next project to your best work, and this movie is far from his best. I wouldn't say that it's horrible, but I expected more with more believable circumstances. 6.5/10"

"Trailer was misleading, somethings were obviously not going to happen in real life, but it was pretty good movie anyways."

"Meh. M. Knight wrote a PG-13 thriller for his wanna be pop star daughter to star in. The best part was seeing 78 year old Hayley Mills, of 1961’s The Parent Trap fame, playing an FBI profiler. This is a scary movie made for 10 year olds. There’s also the subtext of the white man gaslighting and blaming everyone but himself. Silly and boring. "

"Josh Hartnett kept this entire film moving and afloat. Although meandering in parts his dad/serial killer transition was on point and disturbing! Shamalayn's daughter as lady raven was pretty good and her music was good! I loved the plot and the twists and the turns! "

"Honestly I really enjoyed this for what it was . Also, imo, Josh Hartnett really went for it with those expressive faces and played the role well . Zaddy lol "

" Josh Hartnett is good as a serial killer as a concert with daughter. The concert is a sting operation to lure him out though. The movie might have been better if the idea was by Shyamalan but a more talented writer wrote the script. Trap because more and more of a mess as it goes on. With too long of a Shyamalan cameo. Also the fact that he cast his daughter as the singer. She pulls off the singer parts fine when she’s doing the concert. She eventually gets too much to do acting wise. You also have Hartnett eventually just magically getting out of impossible situations. The second half of the film quits trying to give us logical answers. To how he outsmarting the police."

"I tend to love Shyamalan films, so they occasionally get some extra grace from me. I have this 3 stars based a bit on that, and also on the fact that the acting was good. However I unfortunately found the storyline to be a bit boring, always waiting for the extra elements to appear. When they never did, it was quite unsatisfying. There are tense moments, but I always felt they lead to very little payoff. "

"Day 23 of #Spooktober I decided to finally watch a very anticipated film by one of my favorite directors M Night Shyamalan. Even though it’s been over a decade since I’ve been blown away by a Shyamalan film. I always go in with my hopes up. No outside noice can make me hate a project by him without putting my own eyes on it. It started out so good I swear it did. I really tried my bet to like it but it was so many things the made no sense and felt like a fever dream. Character choices just weren’t realistic at all. Then you add Lady Raven who character choices didn’t make logical sense. Shyamalan daughter or not she is a terrible actor in this. She reminded me of the actors from after school specials when I was a kid. I went from liking it in the beginning to basically hating it. At first I saw the vision but after a while it completely lost me. After doing a little research I discovered Shyamalan wanted to highlight his daughter's music career in the film. Celica, Shyamalan's daughter, wrote, produced, and recorded 14 original songs for the movie, and also performed a concert within the film. See had I known this before hand I probably would have liked the film a tad bit more. Still it doesn’t change the film as a whole. I’ve been so disappointed and underwhelmed with M Night last few projects sadly. "

"Josh Hartnett ran away with this role. "