Bird Box (2018)
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Bird Box Movie Review
Bird Box is a 2018 post-apocalyptic thriller film directed by Susanne Bier and starring Sandra Bullock. It’s actually a pretty solid, respectable effort.
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“Every contact we’ve had with the outside has brought us death!“
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It follows a woman who, along with a pair of children, must make it through a forest and river blindfolded to avoid supernatural entities which cause people who see them to either die by suicide or force others to look. Now the movie never actually explained its supernatural phenomenon that causes all these mass suicides. I get that the protagonist’s journey is more important than the phenomenon, but I still would have liked to have been given at least some explanation, at least a vague one.
But there is no denying that this film is very entertaining as it is engaging throughout and quite thrilling in a lot of its scenes. I actually really liked its editing structure which jumps from past to the present and in the past we see how we got to that present, that was very well done. Its thriller/horror elements worked well, but the highlight was the human drama which we’ve seen before in post-apocalyptic movies, but here it was so well done that I liked it regardless.
That being said, the movie is entirely unoriginal as this is basically the blindfolded version of a much better ‘Quiet Place’. That obvious parallel hurt the movie quite a bit in the long run. And those supernatural scenes aren’t as scary as they should have been mostly because the phenomenon itself is too vague to register true scares. The behavior of the people on the other hand is creepy with Gary being quite menacing himself.
Sandra Bullock excelled in the main role and the film is about her quest for motherhood. She conveyed emotions beautifully while remaining tough and a survivor throughout. But I also really liked John Malkovich who’s unlikable, but definitely memorable here. Trevante Rhodes himself is very likable and easy to root for. The kids are cute and Olympia is a sweetheart.
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Bird Box looks great actually. The cinematography is terrific with the river being quite menacing in how it’s portrayed. The direction and pacing are also solid as is the dialogue. Everything in this film is very solid, serviceable and at times even emotionally moving, but nothing quite reaches the greatness that it had the potential to reach.
Bird Box never quite reaches greatness owing to its quite unoriginal, too similar to ‘A Quiet Place’ storyline and an overly vague approach, but it’s still a very solid, competent movie across the board with Sandra Bullock excelling in the main role and many scenes being either quite moving or pretty chilling. It also succeeds as a strong post-apocalyptic drama of sorts.
