I like that M.
Night Shaymalan has loosened up. After the mega-success of The Sixth Sense,
Signs, and to a lesser extent, Unbreakable, Shaymalan got really
tied to a formula. Specifically, he became too focused on his twists. That
didn't create too much of a problem with The Village, which is better
than it's remembered as but not great. By Lady in the Water and The Happening, it was clear he lost that magic. I respect his attempt to try
something new with The Last Airbender, even though it was awful. AfterEarth is better than people give it credit for. Even though The Visit
relied on some of his old tricks, it felt looser. Split is a nice change
too. There are no tricks. It's all laid out pretty early and is allowed to
function as a straightforward thriller.
All that said, I
didn't care much for it. There was too much about the multiple personalities
that felt convenient. I'm willing to use my One Big Leap accepting the
personalities and the internal power struggle between them. That still leaves
the fact that Anya Taylor-Joy just happens to be an expert hunter who has
unnatural poise in this situation and Kevin's doctor not having a better system
in place for when things go off the rails for him to accept (among other
things). That's too many leaps for me to make. "Sometimes people are dumb
or unlucky" isn't good screenwriting. There's also the matter of every
female in this movie existing to be victimized that made me feel pretty icky.
I was expecting to
have a much harder time accepting McAvoy playing all these different
personalities. He mostly made it work though. I say mostly because that final
form of his (the Beast) was just silly. It was a shame that Haley Lu Richardson
and Jessica Sula didn't get more of an opportunity to do anything good in the
movie, because I've liked them in other shows/movies I've seen. Anya Taylor-Joy
is perhaps too stoic. By the time she loses her composure over the window not
being real, I didn't buy it.
In short, the
payoff wasn't good enough to accept all the setup required. Perhaps this Glass
sequel Shaymalan wants to make will work better since he won't be so concerned
with covering up that it's an Unbreakable sequel.
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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