Internet Janitor
Despite films such as The Happening or The Last Airbender I had always been one to defend M. Night Shyamalan. This one though, makes The Happening seem like a masterpiece. It is mind-numbing to even begin comprehending how stupid and implausible it is.
Cooper (played by Josh Hartnett) takes his young daughter to a Lady Raven (played by Saleka Shyamalan who is M. Night’s daughter) only to realize the entire concert is a trap put on by psychopaths to catch a vile killer known as The Butcher. Even worse for Cooper, however, is that he is The Butcher. So these geniuses plan to catch him in a stadium of 10,000+ people because that’s how real life works.
Before we get to anything else this will contain mild spoilers. They get a clue that this serial killer MIGHT be going to the concert. They make it plainly obvious that they are there and impart this knowledge to every single staff member expecting them ALL to keep quiet. Because that’s how the real world works. The plan would then be to hope he does not just start stabbing people, take hostages putting people’s lives at risk for a plan no legal system, well possibly Florida, would ever green light. Given at least a few of those stadium employees would have started to spread the word, there would have been panic. Putting more people at risk.
Was this entire movie just so M. Night could showcase his daughter on stage singing? Given that he self finances his movies that’s entirely possible at this point.
Even given the kindergarten-grade stupid this plan is, for the movie to get to its finale is reliant on a MASSIVE series of DEEPLY unlikely coincidences. There’s a stoic FBI profiler chasing him and it would have been more interesting what kind of blackmail she had on authors to allow her to carry out this plan instead of committing her.
To go along with the conclusion involves such suspension of disbelief that it could have turned out he was a mythical dragon in disguise and I would have been, “Sure, that might as well happen. Seems reasonable.”
Okay, a positive. John Hartnett is pretty good here. There’s a backstory to this character we get 2-3 minutes of but he does not deserve this. He is the best part of this movie and I hope he can move past it.
I need a drink.