Block Muteson

6mo

· edited

Trap kicks off like a level in a Hitman videogame. Social engineering leverages disguise, violence entails savvy, and navigation requires stealth. The ticking clock and spectacle are built into the premise. Concert footage cuts against head on dialogue trees with NPCs. The mammoth stature of an arena is set against close quarters and close calls.

Shyamalan squanders this ripe scenario on a timeshare pitch. The closer his daughter gets to the camera, the more promises he asks of his audience. Promise to look past her poor acting. Promise that her piano lessons paid off. Promise that he will get to expand on the vagaries of this lore in subsequent films. This one doesn't even live up to its title.

COMPARABLE
Sudden Death (1995) <== Derogatory

@Beach_kneega @XantaClaus @cody @NOONE @Sonyomom @TheTheoryIsYou @davey @BGFX @Mac_Wit_Da_Cheese @SOLARIS @Antidote @rhinocerosbeetle

Block Muteson

6mo

· edited

Trap kicks off like a level in a Hitman videogame. Social engineering leverages disguise, violence entails savvy, and navigation requires stealth. The ticking clock and spectacle are built into the premise. Concert footage cuts against head on dialogue trees with NPCs. The mammoth stature of an arena is set against close quarters and close calls.

Shyamalan squanders this ripe scenario on a timeshare pitch. The closer his daughter gets to the camera, the more promises he asks of his audience. Promise to look past her poor acting. Promise that her piano lessons paid off. Promise that he will get to expand on the vagaries of this lore in subsequent films. This one doesn't even live up to its title.

COMPARABLE
Sudden Death (1995) <== Derogatory

@Beach_kneega @XantaClaus @cody @NOONE @Sonyomom @TheTheoryIsYou @davey @BGFX @Mac_Wit_Da_Cheese @SOLARIS @Antidote @rhinocerosbeetle

Mr Papi Nigga Dave

6mo

good write up
bout to check out sudden death

i like what he's doing for his daughters tho

Mac Wit Da Cheese

6mo

It really did feel like a game level in the beginning

Jonboi

6mo

With this and Aggro Dr1ft I wonder if we’re gonna enter a new wave of films that feel like video games

Block Muteson

6mo

Trap kicks off like a level in a Hitman videogame. Social engineering leverages disguise, violence entails savvy, and navigation requires stealth. The ticking clock and spectacle are built into the premise. Concert footage cuts against head on dialogue trees with NPCs. The mammoth stature of an arena is set against close quarters and close calls.

Shyamalan squanders this ripe scenario on a timeshare pitch. The closer his daughter gets to the camera, the more promises he asks of his audience. Promise to look past her poor acting. Promise that her piano lessons paid off. Promise that he will get to expand on the vagaries of this lore in subsequent films. This one doesn't even live up to its title.

COMPARABLE
Sudden Death (1995) <== Derogatory

@Beach_kneega @XantaClaus @cody @NOONE @Sonyomom @TheTheoryIsYou @davey @BGFX @Mac_Wit_Da_Cheese @SOLARIS @Antidote @rhinocerosbeetle

Jonboi

6mo

· edited

Sincerity goes a long way. I’m willing to accept the less-than-stellar performance from his daughter because the meta layer results in a cozy experience for me. I like that Shyamalan found a way to merge his family life with his artistic life. Usually, with nepotism it’s just the celeb greasing some doors and pushing their kid into the spotlight. But this feels like an example of how to do nepotism in a natural way, like he found a logical point where he could create space for her in his world. When you’ve built this empire for yourself, why not?

If I hated her screen presence, I don’t know that any of this would matter, but she was just good enough for my liking.

Block Muteson

6mo

I thought it was so smart to keep her in the background, you know, behind glass kind of like how a pop star is. I was totally on board.

Up close she was a little unsettling. Once she becomes the hero I'm just over it. Little details like saving the guy with an IG live or her fans protecting her or the out of the way hug of the black kid are just public relations to me.

I like Shyamalan and do think his sincerity always shines through. This is just so self-interested. Loses a little charm.

Jonboi

6mo

I like that she becomes so central, partly because it’s a way to push the plot to its logical conclusion in a ridiculous, cartoon logic kind of way haha. Like, of course she had to go to the killer’s house. Everything orbits around her. The movie shows us back doors, but then always chooses to walk us straight through the front. And, that’s exciting to me.

Block Muteson

6mo

Trap kicks off like a level in a Hitman videogame. Social engineering leverages disguise, violence entails savvy, and navigation requires stealth. The ticking clock and spectacle are built into the premise. Concert footage cuts against head on dialogue trees with NPCs. The mammoth stature of an arena is set against close quarters and close calls.

Shyamalan squanders this ripe scenario on a timeshare pitch. The closer his daughter gets to the camera, the more promises he asks of his audience. Promise to look past her poor acting. Promise that her piano lessons paid off. Promise that he will get to expand on the vagaries of this lore in subsequent films. This one doesn't even live up to its title.

COMPARABLE
Sudden Death (1995) <== Derogatory

@Beach_kneega @XantaClaus @cody @NOONE @Sonyomom @TheTheoryIsYou @davey @BGFX @Mac_Wit_Da_Cheese @SOLARIS @Antidote @rhinocerosbeetle

NOONE

6mo

i agree it's contrived but i feel the whole movie moreso tries to achieve the cartoonish logic the other poster was talking about even in the first act with the fryer stuff for example, then ofc there was a pleasure in seeing hartnett work the room that goes missing but this very fact is what Trap wants to talk about imo, like "old" spectacle vs "new" spectacle (perhaps even a***og vs digital at large), a generational battle of some sort and parental questions regarding what can possibly make this singer my daughter loves so attractive? in a way the first act is about getting there, the butcher gets to go to her most intimate place, her dressing room, but then does the most desperate act thus far to preserve yes his freedom but also some sort of authority over his daughter's affection and this move is what causes his downfall because he'll find out that the secret of the Pop Star is genuinity (a stretch in the real world of course lmao but it's Shyamalan after all), something that he can't have bc of his double life

in light of this Saleka's presence to me feels like Shyamalan telling us how happy he is to have found a way to make their respective interests collide rather than just plant her, tho that's inevitable

side note the ig live scene i thought was cool how she uses the internal camera in contrast w the butcher who's always using the external one, pointing it somewhere else

Block Muteson

6mo

I didn't find the fryer cartoonish at all. I assumed it was a fire to divert attention and it went off like a IED and scarred that poor girl for life I'm sure. The shove down the steps was absurd in its callousness but not light and cartoony at all.

You can obviously deconstruct the stuff Shyamalan did after the arena, but that doesn't justify the route the film takes. There is so much set up and probing and problem solving and nothing comes of it. It's a divisive decision to sell this movie on a situation it ultimately isn't very concerned with.

And regardless of interpretation or preference, Saleka is a week screen presence. I found her piano ballad and her general appearance being so retouched off putting. That is the opposite of the authenticity someone might appreciate in a pop persona. She doesn't actually feel real in any way besides her survival instincts.

Block Muteson

6mo

Trap kicks off like a level in a Hitman videogame. Social engineering leverages disguise, violence entails savvy, and navigation requires stealth. The ticking clock and spectacle are built into the premise. Concert footage cuts against head on dialogue trees with NPCs. The mammoth stature of an arena is set against close quarters and close calls.

Shyamalan squanders this ripe scenario on a timeshare pitch. The closer his daughter gets to the camera, the more promises he asks of his audience. Promise to look past her poor acting. Promise that her piano lessons paid off. Promise that he will get to expand on the vagaries of this lore in subsequent films. This one doesn't even live up to its title.

COMPARABLE
Sudden Death (1995) <== Derogatory

@Beach_kneega @XantaClaus @cody @NOONE @Sonyomom @TheTheoryIsYou @davey @BGFX @Mac_Wit_Da_Cheese @SOLARIS @Antidote @rhinocerosbeetle

Mac Wit Da Cheese

6mo

Can’t believe this guy is about to voice Barney in the reboot series