Almost a Good Movie

Rating: 5/10 (17 February 2017)

"Split", by M. Night Shyamalan, is not a good movie. If I had to describe how I felt after watching the film I would say that I was overwhelmingly disappointed. There are quite a few things that this movie did right that I can really appreciate. However, the cons greatly outweigh the positives.
As a director, M. Night has always really been a hit or miss. After the release of "The Sixth Sense" Newsweek magazine had regarded him as "the next Spielberg", but his films became progressively more mediocre after "Signs". After the release of "The Last Airbender"(arguably his worst movie) I was unsure he could ever redeem himself.
When I saw the trailer for "Split", I was thoroughly interested in what M. Night had to offer (despite how corny the trailer was). Shyamalan had painted a brief picture of an enveloping psychological thriller that anyone could get invested in. I and the rest of America were immediately hooked, and with a box office 164.4 million dollars you know that your trailer was well marketed. This is the biggest problem that I personally had with the movie. The trailer gave false expectations for the movie you were about to see. Instead of the psychological thriller that I was prepared to watch, I got something that leaned more towards the supernatural. While this isn't inherently a problem it still didn't really seem to fit the tone of the movie.
The real problems with the movie come from the script and the three lead girls. The protagonist, Casey (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), is probably the best of the three. Still her performance doesn't match the situation that she's presented with, and is unbelievable at best. I'm uncertain if this is because of the script she was given, if she was just not well directed, or if she's just a bad actor. Either way it wasn't very good for the movie. The script doesn't help much. It's really easy to see that it had been rewritten a few times at least. You can tell that Shyamalan really wanted to use a couple of scenes, but he couldn't figure out a clever way of writing them in. This is especially evident in the final scene of the movie where an unnecessary connection to "Unbreakable" (another one of his films) is made.
The majority of this movie was bad, but it's still really important to recognize what was good about it. This movie had a good atmosphere. Albeit one that didn't match the supernatural twist that accompanied it, but a good atmosphere nonetheless. Another thing that I liked was the cinematography and some of the shots. They were very well thought out. There were a lot of good overhead and creeping shots that really helped develop the mood and a sense of dread. My favorite element of this move was the performance of James McAvoy (Kevin), the antagonist of the film. He did a great job of being able to depict the multiple personalities of Kevin and made the roles seem natural 100% of the time he was on screen. This feat is astounding to say the least, and could not have been pulled off by a less talented actor.
Too sum it up "Split" was not a good movie. It wasn't horrible, but it was by no means good. I was entertained (mostly because it is one of the most unintentionally hilarious movies I've ever seen), but very disappointed and disconnected from the film. Overall I would rate this a 5/10.