A Largely Well-Made Movie

Rating: 6/10 (23 February 2017)

Split follows three young women who are kidnapped by a man with multiple personalities who, supposedly, has sinister intentions for said girls.
When I first heard about this movie I wasn't excited. It's M. Night Shyamalan, what could possibly go right? After 'The Visit' from 2015, which received mixed reception (but I hated it), I was fairly done with M. Night. Still, Split was well met, so I gave it a go.
Going in I wasn't totally sure what I would think of James McAvoy in this role. It would be easy to mess up, but it very well could be good. I'm happy to say that I walked out thoroughly impressed by his performance. He managed to embody each personality perfectly, portraying each one as a totally different person. Come Oscar season, I hope this guy at least gets a nomination. As for the others, they were fine. Anya Taylor-Joy is the standout of the three main females, though this is far from her best. The other two girls are good, but nothing worth mentioning.
The tone of the movie is rather dark, and it doesn't hold many punches. It explores dark themes in ways that I haven't seen in movies much as of late. It was great to see a movie put itself out there and be a little more than edgy.
The writing is almost all great. The dialogue is most always well- written, the plot moves at a good pace, and the characters are interesting and fleshed out. At least, the important ones are. Where the writing falters is with Betty Buckley's character. She is, while important, poorly written. Her dialogue is forced and doesn't really make sense. She talks to the audience more than she does McAvoy's character. More than once, she says things that, while you can tell the writers were trying to work it in well, it was clear that they didn't succeed. She'll just throw bits of information into conversations where both parties know said information so that we'd know. It doesn't work very well, and as such the movie suffers from being a little exposition-heavy.
The movie takes a little while to really get going. It fakes out the audience at the beginning by making them think that there will be a set-up for the characters, then it just gets right into the plot. While I don't have a problem with movies skipping the intro and getting right into it, the way Split handles it doesn't totally work. The tone just shifts from one side of the spectrum to the other in about 5 minutes.
There is one thing at the very end of this movie that is kind of fantastic. It actually makes some aspects of this movie that, at first appeared goofy and dumb, actually make sense. So when you get confused, just wait. It pulls off a different kind of twist ending that I absolutely loved.
Overall, Split has a rocky start that once you settle into really is a lot of fun in the long run. McAvoy is outstanding, and the writing is more often than not great. I had a great time with this movie, and I really can't wait to see it again. In the end, I would definitely recommend Split.