Shyamalan's "Split"

[Totenkindly]

Split (2017 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Well, he's back up for another release in January 2017, with James McAvoy in lead and Anya Taylor-Joy (!! "The Witch", "Morgan") as well. So it's not like he doesn't have good talent in play here.

The only review that popped up so far (and the only reason I knew about the movie), I can't read because it has spoilers. So of course, with Shyamalan, he's going to do a plot that generates the possibilities for spoilers. The gist of the review seemed very positive and maybe that Shyamalan has found his second wind (which is possible, since he suffered the problem of "too much, too fast" and ended up getting absorbed in his own little bubble versus subjecting his later movies to outside scrutiny). it would be nice if he managed to bump up his game. Last year's "The Visit" had some pretty silly trailers, but the movie itself was solid if not spectacular, and actually made some sense at end.

Anyway, it basically deals with a killer with multiple personalities. But that's about as far as I wanted to read.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

No Airbender 2. What a shame.

 

[PeaceBaby]

After watching the trailer for the "The Split" a month or so ago, I felt it was hard to gauge where the movie will go in terms of destination ... I wonder if the trailer is meant to be more of a red herring for M Night's movies these days though. A distraction rather than a tease. I'm not watching the trailer again before I see the movie at release, and not reading anything else 'til after. Not interested in spoilering it for myself.

 

[Totenkindly]

No Airbender 2. What a shame.

Maybe if it was a horror movie, the sickening feeling generated in the viewing audience would feel more apropos.

After watching the trailer for the "The Split" a month or so ago, I felt it was hard to gauge where the movie will go in terms of destination ... I wonder if the trailer is meant to be more of a red herring for M Night's movies these days though. A distraction rather than a tease. I'm not watching the trailer again before I see the movie at release, and not reading anything else 'til after. Not interested in spoilering it for myself.

I didn't even see the trailer, but I'm never watching TV live -- I would just happen to catch it online on a movie site if I saw it at all.

Yeah, it's hard to tell how it would be set up, and with his movies, it's just better not to watch. I still have residual anger left over from the "Dream House" trailer. (Different director, but hey, let's just spoil the movie in the trailer itself. And let's toss in Terminator Genysis while we're at it.)

 

[PeaceBaby]

*nods*

And let's toss in Terminator Genysis while we're at it.

yes, one of the worst spoilers EVER!

And the "10 Cloverfield Lane" trailer ... let's connect the dots for you kiddies!

Haven't seen "Dream House" yet but thanks for the warning to avoid the trailer lol!

 

[Totenkindly]

*nods*



yes, one of the worst spoilers EVER!

And the "10 Cloverfield Lane" trailer ... let's connect the dots for you kiddies!

Haven't seen "Dream House" yet but thanks for the warning to avoid the trailer lol!

To be honest, you could probably just avoid the movie altogether. Not one of Daniel Craig's better excursions....

The 10 Cloverfield Lane trailer pretty much does encapsulate the movie and no big surprises there. (I liked the parts with John Goodman.)

 

[meowington]

Premise sounds great, as usual. Trailer looks solid too, but I think you (@Totenkindly) have a point. It might be a good idea for me as well to skip trailers from now on, as trailers these days give away too much for experienced and spoiled viewers such as ourselves

Big fan of Shyamalan. My favorites : Lady in the water & The happening. Only one I didn't like was Signs. Even liked last airbender. [MENTION=19700]Anaximander[/MENTION] : yeah, too bad, no airbender 2.

Never quite understood why and when it became cool to bash Shyamalan.

Still have to see The Visit. Thx for the reminder.

 

[Totenkindly]

I actually made a trip out to see this today. (I haven't gone out to the movies since Rogue One. I used to go 2-3 times a month.)

Mostly I was scared I would see spoilers... and about twenty minutes before the movie started as I was reading about ANOTHER movie, I almost found one and had to bail on the page. Jeeez.

Anyway...

Long story short -- it's another success, on the level of The Visit or maybe slightly better... a respectable single or maybe a double. Shyamalan is finally putting the men on bases again.

he only had a $9 million budget, and I'm glad because he is forced to focus on character and story. I won't say the story is complicated because it's not, but he manages to corral the talent he needs to make this work (James McAvoy + Anna Taylor-Joy). Basically the dialogue is solid enough that these two powerful actors can take the movie and run with it. McAvoy is pretty amazing, he manages to play various personalities (occasionally rapid-fire) in ways that don't come off as cheesy or false, he's very nuanced and it's a full performance -- speech, body language, cadence, bearing. I really believed he was different personas here. Taylor-Joy also is proving to be much like Jennifer Lawrence when she started... she's appealing, she's evocative, she's sympathetic, and she has a naked wide-eyed vulnerability about her. Pretty much she nails every role she's had since "The Witch" last year, and elevates even bad movies by her performance (e.g., "Morgan").

And yeah, there's a spoiler. I will include it here if you haven't run across it yet... it's not really about the movie, it's about the tag scene.

This ties into Unbreakable. David Dunn appears in the movie at the cap. It suggests a follow-up movie starring the Split guy (Kevin) and Dunn, fighting it out. Shyamalan is making low-key superhero movies here; there are heroes and villains with powers a bit more than human, but not quite like the Avengers with their flashy suits and crazy power level, it's more like "the very next stage of human evolution" power level. It makes me wonder if Mr. Glass got out of the asylum yet.

The irony was that I realized I hadn't seen Unbreakable for a long long time, so I rewatched it starting last night and was halfway through when I left to see split today -- and I happened to be reading spoilers on Unbreakable and started a sentence referring to Split... and that's when I bailed. Man, that's just ridiculous... I'm having a movie spoiled by reading about another movie.

 

[Totenkindly]

freakin A.... !!!

In March 2016, it was reported that Taylor-Joy was being approached to star as Magik in an upcoming adaptation of the New Mutants comic book series, slated to be a part of the X-Men film franchise.[14][15]

I totally missed that. But as a blonde, she'd be a decently wicked Illyana. I love that character -- the Magik miniseries was very formative in my high school comic book reader life. I followed her on and off in graphic novel back collections (when she was in New Mutants) and I like how edgy she was.

 

[StrawberryJam]

I've heard good things about it but I haven't seen the trailer yet. I'm planning to watch it but I don't know when since I'm so busy.

 

[Stigmata]

Saw it a few weeks ago and I overall enjoyed it, but it very quickly turned an awesome premise into a "What in the actual fuck?" moment.