Bryan C.

As with many others here, I enjoyed the premise. Josh Hartnett delivered as flawless of a performance as could be expected with what the script presented. Some thoughts as to what would have helped. 1. Setting is in San Diego (important for the resolution) 2. Who the trap was intended for versus who it caught. That is, The Butcher's profile is not yet developed, but then the machinations of the trap unhinge him much as we saw. Another high-profile criminal is believed to be at the concert, the diegesis roles (minor characters) know less and can share less... which help to unravel Hartnett's character. "Are they actually looking for me?" 2. Greater development of backstory intercut with the present trap - where we learn that troubled Hartnett escaped his home at a fairly young age and reinvented himself without further contact with his family. 3. The big reveal is that the profiler is actually Cooper's long-estranged mother who was balancing the pressures of the FBI academy and stress of her work not long after Cooper was born. 4. The person they are actually looking for is Cooper's wife, who - other big reveal - is also a serial killer (or a jewel thief? or...). The other, even bigger reveal is that Cooper and his wife are truly kindred spirits. Close to Cooper escaping from the stadium, the daughter makes a one-off comment about wishing that mom had been able to come too. 5. When Cooper locks his wife and kids in the bedroom - she chloroforms them. After Mom knocks out Lady Raven with a lamp or statue when she was confronting Cooper, the family escapes together. 6. Phones are thrown out of the car speeding away as they cross the border from the U.S. into Mexico. 7. Denouement - final shot is of the FBI Lead / Cooper's mother - arriving at the house, speaking with Lady Raven and barely saying "David" or whatever her son's original name was - as she admires the family photo and the grandchildren she has never met.

I will preface my comments by saying I don't write reviews for movies. The proliferation of genres, directors, social commentary content, widespread existing commentary: there are too many reasons as to why I find writing blurbs like this to be a complete waste of our collective time. That said, this film was such a disjointed, erratic, haphazard mess - I would have preferred to rewatch Sharknado. Leave the World Behind makes a doomsday classic like The Day After Tomorrow seem like the greatest film ever made. It takes itself so seriously as a highbrow film that delves into the popular and the pop-cultural that many posit are a threat to further fracturing our society (media over-saturation, "polite" racism, deep state conspiracies, instability of truth and meaning, etc.). I love obscure films, open-ended interpretations, and probing questions about how we can hope to overcome both new and longstanding societal issues. And yet, no. A whole heaping, steaming pile of NO. I will not make this political by bringing up the widely-known producers as some of these comments have done. I feel embarrassed for all involved in green-lighting and creating this. There are so many talented screenwriters and budding industry professionals stymied by more recent tribulations of the entertainment industry, and this is what industry leaders and decision makers think we want. For this film, and in so many aspects of our modern lives - as is evident by the topical explorations of the film: we deserve better. We also deserve and must demand better from Netflix/"Big Entertainment". I hesitate to utter the word art in connection to this abject failure of a movie. Do better.