Bird Box

        Bird Box stars Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, "Dumplin" star Danielle Macdonald, John Malkovich, and more. 5 years ago, a force that drives people to suicide took over the world and plundered it into a post-apocalyptic hellscape. Malorie (Bullock) makes the decision to try and escort her kids through the outside in order to get her kids to safety.
        This is a Netflix original and was released on December 21st. I'm not sure how popular it was upon release, but my social media feeds are flooded with press on this movie in the form of memes, sponsored ads, etc. The fact that internet humor has taken to this movie shows that it has become extremely popular in the last week. People are talking about this movie. Because of this (and also because I wanted to be 'in' on the jokes and the memes), I decided to watch it. From the trailers alone, I felt that it had some strong similarities with another film that came out this year called A Quiet Place. Both were about families trying to survive a post-apocalyptic world, both had supernatural and extra-terrestrial monsters, and both presented a sensory, communal limitation that makes it harder to traverse the outside with one cutting off sound and another cutting off sight. While I do think that A Quiet Place is the better movie, I still thought Bird Box was a decent, post-apocalyptic film.
        The film presents itself in an out of order narrative with two separate timelines: one where the world has just barely seen itself crumble and the other where its been 5 years since the downfall of society. I'm not sure if its like that in the book, but I liked this execution. It keeps you guessing as to what happens out of context and makes you more invested.
        The best aspect of this movie is Bullock's performance. She is an actress that really never does a bad job and this movie is just another example, even if the movie isn't all that great.
        One of the major issues I had with this movie is the presentation of its premise. It doesn't lure you into it's "don't look" engagement as much as I wanted it too. It has the characters learning to adapt to the new rules over time, but I never could share in the characters fear of looking at the monster since I wasn't hypnotized into it from the beginning. A Quiet Place does this better by indirectly asking the audience to be quiet the whole time and establishing its tone right from the get-go, but Bird Box doesn't have this. It tries to establish this displacing mood, but it tries to segue into it from the chaos and it doesn't work that well. This could also be due to the pacing at the beginning. From the time Malorie is talking with her sister to the time she is barricaded in a stranger's home, the movie has only just barely passed the 10-minute mark. It's quick and distracted from my overall engagement. It never gave me enough time to understand the main character in her depths so when she is confessing her heart to one of the kids later in the movie, I've lost the willingness to feel emotional for her since I never got that from the start.
        Bullock's character carries a lot of the movie and this makes it so many other characters feel pointless. This applies to Felix who is played by Machine Gun Kelly. His acting is fine, but his character only fills the role of the pessimistic douchebag who dips really early in the film and is never to be heard from again. This also applies to Malkovich's character. He's overly pessimistic and, as Malorie puts it, a jack ass. Then he is never mentioned again. None of the characters or their deaths seem to have an impact on Malorie, except for a couple, so when she is in her most vulnerable and low moments her post-apocalyptic experiences with groups don't feel as important. Some character deaths are supposed to be emotional, but hardly any of them pay off in tears.
        Bullock meets and works with many characters who never seem to have an impact on her, but there is a breed of people, who aren't affected by the monster when they look at it, who have to be the ones to take the prize for least impact. It seems like a huge and cool idea gone to waste and they never add anything to the plot. I'm not sure how the book handled the concept that surrounds these "crazy" people, but the movie never uses them in any other way except to present a minor inconvenience.
        I can see why this movie is being talked about by a lot of general audience members, but I never could invest myself in the movie as much as I would've liked to. It's a decent post-apocalypse movie that will entertain you, but don't expect to be so scared to the point where you feel the need to blindfold yourself upon leaving your house. If anything, I would just watch it so you can be in on the memes and jokes. 6.8/10