It started with a dream. After seeing a trailer for a new summer blockbuster, a friend of mine had a premonition of sorts about “Trap”, that it was going to be filled with bizarre logic, like a bad video game with poor programming: characters moving and speaking irregularly, events that don’t line up, and leaves you wondering if you really got your money’s worth. Despite all this, their dream had Trap as the movie of the summer, and because of that, we needed to watch it.

I’ll be honest: I’m writing about this movie because it genuinely perplexed me. Not in the way that “Trap” is some cerebral riddle begging the viewer to solve it. No, “Trap” by all means is a straightforward movie. Shyamalan’s latest cinematic work is both so laughably cringe-worthy, yet also thrilling and engaging that I cannot decide if it’s a good or bad movie. Should you watch “Trap”? I’m not sure.

As I said, “Trap” has a simple premise: a dad and his daughter attend a concert together. It’s revealed that the concert is the eponymous “trap” that is to catch the father, who moonlights as a serial killer. Now he must escape the concert without triggering suspicion on behalf of his daughter. It’s a pretty awesome premise, I won’t lie; it leads to a really fun, action-packed thriller that is quick-moving and exciting.  

This movie, first and foremost, is about father-daughter relationships. The whole impetus for the movie was for Shyamalan to center-stage his daughter’s music career– how sweet. Saleka Shyamalan is the center of the film as Lady Raven, the musical artist that is all the rage with the teens, a la Billie Elish. The music, all written and performed by Saleka Shyamalan, was genuinely a highlight of the film, with all the bells and whistles of a flashy pop concert. M. Night himself appears in the film, as well, in a cameo that is equal parts funny and sweet that he wanted to be in this film with his daughter. 

Now, to counter with something I didn’t like: the on-screen father-daughter relationship. Josh Hartnett gives a really jarring performance. Once again, I can’t tell if his role as Cooper is genius or ridiculous. He plays both the awkward but well-meaning dad and serial killer fully devoid of emotion or empathy, which feel like two very different characters. This leads to some of the more interesting line readings of the movie: as Cooper finds out he is in the “trap” at the concert, he begins looking for any way out while also continuing to entertain his daughter. At one point in the show, a trapdoor in front of the stage opens as a part of the performance, which leads to Cooper pulling on his daughter’s arm and saying something to the effect of, “We should check out what’s down there.” I audibly groaned. 

The movie is filled with moments like this, where Cooper is so abundantly suspicious or strange, but no one around him seems to notice it. He gets into a fight with the mom of one of her daughter’s friends, and his aggression is both absurd and unwarranted. There’s even a point where a side character, a guy selling concert tees, just looks directly into the camera and gives the entire premise of the movie. Was I supposed to think that was clever? 

Perhaps my biggest issue with the film is the way it seems to totally abandon logic by the third act of the film. The first two acts are competent enough; I enjoyed the tense game of cat and mouse and how it was confined by this concert venue. However, once the film leaves these confines, it immediately comes off the rails. Cooper ends up weaseling him and his daughter into being Lady Raven’s VIPs, which gives Saleka Shyamalan some time to shine but takes the film into a realm of logic that was not the same as the first half. 

To be fair, I’m willing to suspend disbelief to enjoy a film. Contrary to what my friends say, I do like fun. That being said, some of the things that happened in the last 45 minutes of “Trap” left me with my head in my hands. Cooper is able to somehow teleport out of a car at one point, quickly incapacitate a SWAT officer, and steal his equipment all in the matter of what seemed like a few moments. He takes his shirt off at one point, for seemingly no reason, just to take upwards of six tasers to the chest, while being poisoned, and stays standing. There were a lot of decisions made for the sake of making the movie “cool,” which fell flat for me every time. 

This takes me back to that dream my friend had, which at this point seems almost prophetic. “Trap” indeed operates within the rules of a dream. The dialogue is either tiringly cliche or so wildly out there in the realm of absurdity that you just have to laugh. Events happen at an odd pace that asks the audience not to think about it, and characters can go from being one thing to another for no apparent reason.  Nonetheless, “Trap” was still my favorite watch of the summer. Why? It’s something that I can’t put into words. What I can say is this: you should watch “Trap”. Watch it with some people you can laugh with, and I guarantee you will at least have something to talk about.