Screen Junkies has finally given M. Night Shyamalan’s Split the Honest Trailer treatment, and they ripped the Shyamalaniverse to shreds.
“From the director who exploded onto the scene, then went out like a hot fart,” the narrator says over footage of what you might consider a flaming fart from The Last Airbender movie, “comes what might be M. Night Shyamalan’s greatest surprise yet: He’s actually kinda good again.” The folks over at Screen Junkies were surprised, you were surprised, and sure, we were surprised by it, too: Split was indeed a breakout hit.
Though the Honest Trailer predictably drags Shyamalan through the mud for all the same tired reasons — the bad dialogue writing, weak acting from supporting cast, etc. — they provide genuinely good examples, but they also offer some solid, pointed critique about Split. Why does the film boast 23 personas in James McAvoy’s Kevin only to put a handful of them on display? Why is every personality a different caricature? Honestly, the film becomes a comedy when you think of Patricia as “creepy Mrs. Doubtfire.”
Perhaps the best zinger comes when they get to Split’s twist ending. Apparently, the real reason the secret connection to Unbreakable was so unpredictable was because “most people in the audience likely forgot about” it.
But we all remember it now, and Shyamalan is supposedly fast at work on a sequel, tying it all together, and even bringing Samuel L. Jackson’s Mr. Glass back.
