Trap (2024) Review

 "This whole concert?  It's a trap."

-Jamie

Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett) takes his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), to a Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan) concert.  Cooper notices a large amount a police officers and learns that the entire concert is a trap to ensnare a notorious serial killer, the Butcher.  Unfortunately for Cooper, he is the Butcher and has to try and find a way out of the concert while keeping his daughter unaware of his identity.

Some spoilers below.  In short, this is a very messy movie that is fun and entertaining throughout.

What Works:

I absolutely love this kind of high concept movie.  Basically a serial killer takes his daughter to a Taylor Swift concert and the feds try to trap him there and he has to find a way out.  What a great premise.  And that part of the movie is very fun.  It's great watching Cooper weasel his way in and out of situations.  I love when he listens in on a briefing for a SWAT team and later a radio discussion between law enforcement.  It's just really fun stuff.

Josh Hartnett does a really fantastic job here.  His character is very complex.  He's a monstrous serial killer, but he's also a family man with a daughter that he truly loves.  The way he jumps back and forth is great, even when it's goofy.  It works because he's a goofy dad half the time.

This movie has some issues, which I will get into, but it never stops being entertaining.  It really goes off the rails in the last third and even though I wish the movie had gone in a different direction, I was still thoroughly entertained and constantly wondering what was going to happen next.

Finally, this is one of the funniest movies of the year.  This is a rare example of what I would call a comedy-thriller.  It's absolutely a thriller and very exciting, but it's so damn funny and I don't think it was unintentional.  At least not all of the time.  It never loses its sense of fun and doesn't take itself too seriously.

What Sucks:

I loved the first two-thirds of this movie because it was all contained to the concert stadium.  The last third leaves the stadium and I do think the story gets less interesting at that point.  It's still entertaining enough, but I think the climax of the film should have been the escape from the stadium.  What we do instead drags out the ending for too long.

Saleka Night Shyamalan is the daughter of the director and plays the pop star character.  She actually wrote a bunch of songs for the movie and she's a very talented singer.  Unfortunately, she isn't the best actor.  She becomes very important in the final third of the movie and it doesn't help the movie much.  She should have been kept in a smaller role. 

Finally, some of the dialogue is absolutely wonky.  There is a lot exposition here and the way it's done is pretty unbelievable.  Sometimes it actually makes the movie funnier.  I just don't buy the way a lot of the law enforcement characters say things.  Not to mention all of the stupid decisions those characters make.  This is more of a case of the law enforcement team being incompetent than Cooper being skilled.

Verdict:

Trap is a very messy movie with some bad acting, bad dialogue, stupid characters, and a third act shakeup that isn't as strong as the rest of the movie.  All that said, Josh Hartnett is fantastic and the movie itself is a really fun watch.  It's schlock and I love schlock.  It's funny, but never loses the thrills.  I never knew what was going to happen next and it keeps its sense of fun the entire time.  It has a lot of problems, but it's fun enough to recommend.

 7/10: Good