What critics thought of M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller

M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, “Old,” doesn’t lack intrigue and suspense, but falls short of the director’s previous work, critics say.

Its latest thriller follows a family of four, Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal), Prisca (Vicky Krieps) and their children, Maddox, 11, and Trent, 6, on a tropical vacation. The family ventures out to a secluded beach at the suggestion of the resort manager, but quickly realizes that the idyllic location makes them age quickly.

The beach is also visited by a rapper, Mid-Size Sedan, surgeon Charles and his family of wife Chrystal, young girl Kara and mother Agnes, as well as a married couple, Jarin and Patricia. Adding to the terror is the fact that the group experiences intense headaches causing a power outage if they try to leave the area.

Critics agreed that “Old” is not Shyamalan’s best work, but far from the worst. The director has become famous for his shocking twists and surprise endings that range from genius (“The Sixth Sense”) to silly (“The Happening.”) “Old” seems to fall somewhere in between.

The Universal movie currently holds a 55% Rotten Tomatoes score out of 153 reviews. Here’s what critics thought of Shyamalan’s “Old” ahead of its debut on Friday.

The premise of “Old” is appealing, wrote Peter Travers in his review of the film for ABC News. The problem is, once it hooks you, it has a hard time holding your attention for the duration of its execution.

“Shot with a poet’s eye and an ear for dialogue, this thriller sets up a provocation that Shyamalan lacks the ability to develop much less sustain,” Travers said.

“Old” is based on a graphic novel called “Sandcastle,” which follows a similar principle, but leaves the mystery of the supernatural beach open. Shyamalan, adapting the material, added his own explanation for the strange events.

Some critics felt the reveal (which won’t be spoiled here) was a harmless addition to the fable, while others, like Travers, felt the concept was “lame” and was detrimental to the film.

“You leave ‘Old’ wondering how a brilliant premise could end with such shoddy work,” Travers wrote.

Read the full ABC News review.

Critics like IGN’s Robert Daniels were quick to point out how beautifully “Old” was shot. Daniels praised cinematographer Mike Gioluakis for his creativity in capturing onscreen horror. He noted that the aging effects and makeup were also well done by the special effects team.

However, the stiff conversations and heavy exposure in the character’s dialogue left a lot to be desired, he wrote.

“’Old’ works best when it focuses on the horror of young people experiencing the ravages of age long before their time,” Daniels wrote in his review. “Strong performances from the entire cast manage to disguise what is arguably the worst and least rhythmically believable dialogue of M. Night Shyamalan’s career, save for his dismal live-action” Avatar: The Last Airbender “.”

Much of the “ham fist” explanations were best left as mysteries, he wrote.

“Nonetheless, ‘Old’ is as deep as any thriller that Shyamalan has made,” Daniels said. “It’s a movie that probably won’t deserve to be watched over and over again, but this debut film is a stimulating meditation on what it means to be alive that conjures up dark, buried feelings like water kissing sand. “

Read the full IGN review.

Dialogue wasn’t the only flaw critics noted in “Old” reviews. Todd Gilchrist of The Wrap said the characters in the film “appeared to have been designed by some sort of algorithm in a scriptwriting program.”

“Among the ensemble washed up on the beach, there is a museum curator, an actuary, a thoracic surgeon, a nurse and a psychologist; each of them might as well have been named after his profession, as Shyamalan not only puts them together with mechanical precision but also filters every situation in the story through the expertise they offer, ensuring a surge of comedy show at every turn to assess how or why circumstances have changed, ”he wrote in his review of the film.

The actuary does a lot of tedious calculations, psychologists encourage others to talk about their feelings, and the characters react to situations in strange and unrealistic ways, he said. Many critics have said that if these characters had been fleshed out more, audiences might have been more emotionally invested in their life and death spell.

“As is increasingly the case in his films, Shyamalan is too preoccupied with the machinery of his ideas to test them before unleashing them on characters that we should, or could, care about, if only they were doing things. choices that were identifiable from a distance, ”said Gilchrist.

Read the full review of The Wrap.

Like many critics, Detroit News’ Adam Graham notes that “Old” is one of Shyamalan’s best films, but falls short of previous hits like “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs.”

“The problem is, well, Shyamalan, who pushes himself over with flashy camera work and smears the atmosphere he creates with his clumsy writing,” he wrote in his review. “Every time you walk in, he pulls you out.”

Graham also found the ending disappointing, saying “it’s hard to do a doozy when the audience is trained to know you’re coming down the pike.”

Read the full Detroit News review.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company CNBC and NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal owns Rotten Tomatoes and is the distributor of “Old”.