Hello and good day to all you beautiful people here on the dark corners of Youtube!
I am Torstein from Cinema Terror and today I checked out one of the newest additions
to the streaming service that is Netflix.
The movie is called Bird Box and here are my thoughts on it.
Based on a 2014 novel of the same name by Josh Malerman, Bird Box is an end of the world
tale about an unknown force coming to life and taking out nearly all of human kind.
This being or beings make everyone who looks at it commit suicide and the only way to keep
yourself safe is to either stay inside of a building with all the windows covered, or
stay blindfolded.
We follow Malorie, a pregnant woman, as she tries to stay alive and keep herself and her
unborn baby safe.
She finds shelter with a group of other survivers and together they must try to gather resources
while keeping each other safe from the evil presence that does whatever it can to lure
them out and take a peek at whatever the hell this thing is.
Bird Box has an interesting premise going on.
Not letting your characters be able to see the outside world brings them big challenges
when it comes to survival and it is a concept that can keep the suspense going from start
to finish as evil is always right outside their door or window.
They only give us, the viewers, the rules, but no explanations, so it's up to you to
fill in the blanks and let your brain get creative in thinking about what the hell these
creatures are, where they came from and what their ultimate goal is.
It reminded me a lot of Stephen King's The Mist in that strangers has to form a group
while the rest of the world is going down.
It allows for interesting dynamics between the cast members and can make you engaged
in the story as you will become interested in finding out who will survive and where
the story will end.
Bird Box does a narration choice that takes some of that away though as we intercut between
the start of this apocalyptic threat and five years later, a choice I did not care for at
all as that basically spoils the fate of most of the characters early on.
What I liked the most about the film was the great performances it had to offer.
I don't believe I've seen Sandra Bullock better than this before, but to be honest I've probably
seen less than 10% of her filmography as most of her stuff does not look like something
I would enjoy.
Her character Malorie is the focus of the film and the only one who gets to have some
real character development, giving her enough time to flesh out her character and struggles
and make us care for her.
The rest of the actors give good performances, but are brought down a bit by not playing
important roles.
Two of them decide to just abandon the rest and while in a different film this could have
been played up as a major event, but here it's basically not mentioned or given much
attention.
That might not be a big negative for many viewers, as the more you are hooked on the
story of a movie and Sandra Bullock, the more you will be able to look past some logical
flaws or lackluster supporting character choices.
Some of my complaints about under developed characters only came up once I started to
think about the movie after being finished and not while I was watching the film.
' A criticism I had while watching it however
was that it felt like the filmmakers tried to avoid going full on horror.
They had a scary premise available but seemed to do the most to avoid making the film get
stuck with the horror genre tag.
They could easily have made this film more scary as the times they do let the suspense
run wild is the best scenes in the film and for me the movie could have been amazing if
they didn't underplay the horror while amping up the drama.
In a year where there has been talk about elevated horror and nonsensical stuff like
that, you would think that a movie dealing with basically the end of human life wouldn't
be afraid or ashamed of going full on horror.
Of course this is a complaint that I have as a horror fan and not something every viewer
will share, so please do keep that in mind.
Bird Box is directed by a fellow Scandinavian, the Danish Academy Award and Emmy winning
filmmaker Susanne Bier.
Her acclaimed work is mostly done within the drama genre, which makes my previous complaint
about lack of going for the horror more understandable.
She clearly is a competent filmmaker and even if I wish she would have embraces the scarier
aspects of the story, especially as she handled suspense excellently, I can't hold it against
her if that's not where she wanted to take it.
Bird Box is a film that I think the majority of viewers will find to be an enjoyable experience.
I am sure there will be a crowd out there that will find the concept interesting, but
will have problems with the execution or the open questions that the film doesn't attempt
to answer for you.
But overall I would recommend that you do give this film a chance and I hope its flaws
won't bring the movie down too much for you.
I doubt I will revisit this film in the future, but I am happy with the two hours I've spent
with it.
Bird Box gets the respectable score of 3.5 out of 5.
Have any of you spent your time on Netflix with Bird Box yet?
If so, what did you think of it?
And are there other stuff on Netflix currently that more people need to check out?
Let me and others know about it in the comment section below.
A new film that I don't believe is even out on streaming services or physical media yet
is a thriller called The Cleaning Lady.
I have a review up for it, so if you haven't already, then make sure you check that one
out as well.
Thank you for watching my review of Bird Box, keep watching Cinema Terror and have a lovely
day.
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