Certificate: 15
Running time: 117 minutes
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan.
What's it about? Three teenage girls are kidnapped by a man who has twenty three different personalities. As they race to escape they must work out which personalities they can trust, before the emergence of a sinister twenty fourth personality.
The verdict: Firstly, and this should come as no surprise, James McAvoy is brilliant in this. He's able to seamlessly switch between personalities without it ever feeling jarring for the audience. The supporting cast are also strong, particularly Anya Taylor-Joy who has a great presence on screen - she is an expert at using her eyes to convey a multitude of emotions.
Although Split has been marketed as a horror, I think it would be more accurate to call it a psychological thriller. There are definitely tense moments but it never feels scary. In a way, this was slightly disappointing as there was potential there to make Split a clever and original horror. However I did find it engaging and I was curious to see how it played out. I particularly liked the abduction scene at the beginning, the pacing of it was brilliant and set the film up well.
Where Split fell down for me, was in the third act when everything was coming to its climax. At this point, some of the audience may feel as though they need to suspend their disbelief. There were also aspects that felt like a slight cop out and I was left slightly confused on some of the plot points. The other issue I had with Split was that some characters very much felt like fodder, and were used and then disregarded. I can understand this as a plot device but it felt like potentially interesting characters were wasted.
Finally it's important to mention the ending, which will almost certainly divide the audience. You will either think it's brilliant or the film equivalent of click bait. Personally I liked it, it piqued my interest and I thought it was clever. It also changed how I viewed the whole film. Overall I found Split enjoyable but it perhaps didn't quite live up to my expectations after the brilliant trailer.
Should you watch this film? Yes. It's great to see James McAvoy playing several different characters and it's a must for M. Night Shyamalan fans.
The verdict: Firstly, and this should come as no surprise, James McAvoy is brilliant in this. He's able to seamlessly switch between personalities without it ever feeling jarring for the audience. The supporting cast are also strong, particularly Anya Taylor-Joy who has a great presence on screen - she is an expert at using her eyes to convey a multitude of emotions.
Although Split has been marketed as a horror, I think it would be more accurate to call it a psychological thriller. There are definitely tense moments but it never feels scary. In a way, this was slightly disappointing as there was potential there to make Split a clever and original horror. However I did find it engaging and I was curious to see how it played out. I particularly liked the abduction scene at the beginning, the pacing of it was brilliant and set the film up well.
Where Split fell down for me, was in the third act when everything was coming to its climax. At this point, some of the audience may feel as though they need to suspend their disbelief. There were also aspects that felt like a slight cop out and I was left slightly confused on some of the plot points. The other issue I had with Split was that some characters very much felt like fodder, and were used and then disregarded. I can understand this as a plot device but it felt like potentially interesting characters were wasted.
Finally it's important to mention the ending, which will almost certainly divide the audience. You will either think it's brilliant or the film equivalent of click bait. Personally I liked it, it piqued my interest and I thought it was clever. It also changed how I viewed the whole film. Overall I found Split enjoyable but it perhaps didn't quite live up to my expectations after the brilliant trailer.
Should you watch this film? Yes. It's great to see James McAvoy playing several different characters and it's a must for M. Night Shyamalan fans.
Comments
Post a Comment