"Bird Box" Movie Review

By: James Southworth
Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

If you have seen any Netflix original movie, then you know they are a mixed bag. On one hand, you have Oscar quality films like "Beasts of No Nation" and "Roma". But on the other hand, you also have some of the lowest of the low like "The Open House" and "The Cloverfield Paradox". Netflix TV shows are a bit of a different story, as they have a lot of great TV shows. But when it comes to movies, it seems like Netflix is willing to green light almost anything. It looks like they made a smart choice with "Bird Box", which has made records for them for being the most streamed movie in its opening week. I can definitely see why this film has its appeal to a primarily social media-infused audience. The premise itself is intriguing: an unknown force makes people suicidal, no matter whether they actually are or not. The only way to escape this force is to blindfold yourself, but even then, the force will still try to convince you to take your blindfold off. The movie also has several likeable actors in it, including the likes of Sandra Bullock, John Malcovich, Sarah Paulson, and Trevonte Rhodes. I went into this movie interested to see it based on all the hype. Unfortunately, while this movie isn't bad, it still pales in comparison to many other horror films of 2018. It even seems to rip off of elements from other better movies.

There are some elements that work about this movie. I really think the second half of this film is where it gets off the ground, especially in the climax. Director Susanne Bier finally takes her ideas and does something interesting with them. There's some pretty great tension in the climactic moments of this movie. I also feel like the final act's plot twist was actually quite clever. Thinking about it now, the twist almost seemed too obvious, but the fact that it never crossed my mind made the twist work. It was in your face the whole time, and I commend Bier for never playing her hand too early in that regard. I also thought the central thematic arc of the struggles of motherhood was pretty compelling. Even though protagonist Malorie and her children don't have the most believable relationship (more on that later), I still felt connected to the movie whenever Malorie was struggling to decide what was best for her children. I almost feel like this movie could have benefited more if it had laser focused on Malorie and her children rather than adding on all these unnecessary side characters. That isn't to say all the supporting cast is bad though, far from it. Even though John Malcovich is in a role you've come to expect from him, I still found his character (Douglas) to be one of the more interesting of the bunch. The character was written in a pretty cliched way- he's the horrible person who will do anything to save his own skin- but Malcovich is a compelling enough actor to make this character have more stuff going on than what you'd expect. Trevonte Rhodes is unsurprisingly excellent in this film as well as Tom, the love interest to Malorie. I do think that not much about the movie would've changed if he wasn't in it, but I still liked his presence well enough. He brought about a realistic but still hopeful view about the horrific situation that all the characters were in. The highlight performance is undoubtedly Sandra Bullock as our main character. This performance proves that Bullock is still one of the greats around today. She really knocks it out of the park, fleshing out this woman who only cares about surviving and protecting her children. Out of all the characters, her motivations were the easiest to latch on to. I loved the intensity Bullock put into every moment she was on screen, especially in the ending half when the tension really began to ratchet up.

For all the stuff that I admittedly like about this movie, there are a lot of problems with it. Usually, I like it when a mysterious entity isn't shown in horror movies. I often think that the fear of the unknown can be far scarier than seeing a CGI creature. Just look at movies like "It Comes At Night" or "It Follows" for great examples of how to do the unseen entity correct. Unfortunately, this movie doesn't do its 'fear of the unknown' aspect very well. The movie just isn't that scary. When characters see this entity, all that happens is their eyes glaze over and become slightly red. Then, they commit suicide. Oftentimes, the way that characters off themselves are highly cartoonish: one has a truck ram into her, another burns herself alive, and another literally jumps and crashes out of a third story window. These deaths don't strike fear into your heart; in fact, they are unintentionally funny at times. These deaths don't really happen that often though. Instead, what we usually get is very generic suspense beats that you see in every other horror film. You don't feel the tension of this mysterious entity very often. The movie instead wants to find ways to make its characters safe for long periods of time by putting them inside. I don't know why the movie does this, as there are a lot of times when characters are just standing around talking. Because most of the characters are not compelling, these talks add nothing to the story. A movie like "A Quiet Place" never once let the characters be safe. That movie made sure to show you how the characters were in constant danger. That's another weakness of this movie. Instead of showing you what happens, the movie is often doing exposition dumps, whether it be through news reels or character conversations. I think the entity haunting the world could've been scarier if less about it had been discussed. What really hurts this film the most are its flashback sequences. There are two main story lines taking place in this movie: the present day one where Malorie is taking her children on a dangerous journey across the river to a supposedly safe location, and the past where Malorie is attempting to survive this unknown entity with a group of other survivors. Unfortunately, the sequences in the past just aren't that intriguing for the most part. They don't reveal much new information that we couldn't have figured out in the present day sequences. Plus, some of the characters are insufferable. There's one character named Felix played awfully by Machine Gun Kelly. He is probably one of the worst characters I've ever seen in any film ever. Lil Rey Howery's great comedic talents are put to waste on an incredibly cringe worthy character who I was anxiously awaiting to die. Both of the child actors are, quite frankly, awful. You make a big risk when you give children primary roles in your movie, and both of the child actors just don't add anything to the film at all. I don't entirely blame them though, as their characters as written are practically blank slates. Finally, this film feels like it's copying off of both "The Walking Dead" and "The Hunger Games" series in its attempts to establish an apocalyptic world. There's one scene in particular that feels very weirdly like a rip-off of a whole scene from "Catching Fire".

Overall, I can't really say that I lean passionately about "Bird Box" one way or another. While Sandra Bullock's performance and the climactic moments of this film are certainly highlights, the multiple weak performances and cliched horror moments just can't be ignored. Is this movie worth the hype? Probably not. It has spawned off a really stupid challenge that has kids purposefully putting themselves in harm's way, so I guess it's worthy of meme material if nothing else. If you're even remotely interested in the film's premise, I'd say you can give the film a shot. I didn't hate myself for watching it or feel like I wasted my time. I just won't be returning back to it any time in the future.