Review of Split (2017) by Chris W — 22 May 2017

Its like this, I have a Love/Hate relationship with Director M. Night Shyamalan (going to say M. Night for short); He makes a couple of Great if not good movies like Signs, the Sixth sense and Unbreakable and then ever since, "The village" things took a turn downhill...and not for the good!

I get it from the journalist perspective that M. Night was suppose to be the "Next Steven Spielberg but with "The Happening, The village, The Last Air bender" and the abysmal "Lady in the water" his impeccable track record was going down in the dust. That is until I've seen 'SPILT'.

So, Split is a new movie directed by M. night and it centers around James McAvoy as Kevin.......or Dennis.....or Patricia....Or OMG this actor should get an nomination; as you already know by the title alone Kevin has multiple personality disorder. The problem with this is that its not just one or two personas but nearly 23 distinct personalities (I wish I had three so I can walk away from my crappy job and don't remember it...lmao).

It centers around Kevin kidnapping three teenage girls and keeping them in a undisclosed location just in preparation for his 24th personality know to most of his persona's as 'The beast'.

But the movie also centers around one particularly Teenage girl (and a practically very cute one) Casey Cooke played by Anya Taylor-Joy. Her backstory you slowly get to know as the movie progresses but Casey is a bit of an outsider for reasons I won't spoil in the movie; But when s**t goes down it seems she got what it takes to survive and help the other two teenage girls to make it....but is it enough when she has to deal with the 24th persona.

The Good:

It seems M. Night is back on his A-game; something that we haven't seen in a long time with his other previous disasters. the cinematography shines very much in this movie...there were a couple of one takes that I felt was flawlessly done especially in the first half of the movie. McAvoy once again shines in a role that strangely seems to fit him If M.Night is one thing he knows how to cast people that might fit the role like a glove....but his given track record could be considered questionable.

The connection and relationship between Casey as well as Kevin was the thought point of the movie; Casey is no pushover and despite her very backstory is pretty sad and disturbing at most its these parts of her past that makes her a much strong heroine in this movie...she tries to outwit her kidnapper in very intuitive ways even to a point where it comes down to a calm reasoning talk that comes off strange but ends up being one of the best moments in the film.

And there are pretty good moments right up to the "Twist" ending that I don't think anyone expected and I hope if things work out we can see this become an expanded universe which I hope for M. Night's sake he can make it happen.

I'm missing the Psychiatrist Karen who is another voice of reason in this film. While she doesn't get much screen time she's the person that tries to understand a person who has nearly 23 different personality which is a rare case for her. Combined with some though provoked measures of story telling this comes out on top as M. Night's comeback movie.

The Bad:

I can honestly say, I didn't see anything wrong with this movie; ALTHOUGH, that goes without the saying there were some flaws; while some scenes were really intense and downright creepy; there were others that were drawn out to some degree. That being said, don't go into this film thinking it will be something on the line of X-men or some action orientated movie...this is a survival story and a bit of a slow burn which for some can be good or bad, "Killing them softly" with Brad Pitt was a slow burn movie but it still had some good movies in the movie as far as the acting; So if you like films that seem to take a moment to tell a story rather than get to the BOOM BOOM, BANG BANG then you might like this film.

Also, believe it or not some people might not understand the Universe this movie is in...again without spoiling it at the twist ending some people didn't get it so unless you know one of M. Night's movie in particular then you won't get the cool ending that it gives to us.

Overall:

I was VERY surprised by this movie; It crept up and grab me and I was super impressed with this movie; Like I said previously I really hope they expand the universe and I hope a certain character will take McAvoy's personas on.

'Split' is a movie you should be watching and for M. Night a very good start for a comeback.

-Chris Whetstone (Gambitfactor Presents on youtube).