Story by Grant Dillard, Staff writer
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
“Bird Box,” based on the Josh Malerman novel from 2014, premiered on Netflix on Dec. 21, 2018 and gained quite a bit of attention; ranging from countless internet memes to an idiotic “Bird Box Challenge” in which people would do routine tasks while blindfolded. Having been over a month since the film’s premiere, is it really deserving of all the buzz and publicity that surrounds it? Or is it better off forgotten?
The film goes back and forth between two different timelines. The first timeline introduced is set five years into a post-apocalyptic future. Here, the world has been taken over by a supernatural creature that targets and manipulates its victims by sight, resulting in those who are left using blindfolds to protect themselves. Malorie (Sandra Bullock) must take her two children simply named Boy (Julian Edwards) and Girl (Vivien Lyra Blair) on a perilous journey through the river and forest to make it to a promised civilization where they’ll be safe. The other timeline is set five years earlier during the first stages of the epidemic and how Malorie and a group of other survivors learn to protect themselves.
It’s easy to compare this film to last year’s “A Quiet Place,” as both films involve a post-apocalyptic future with a mysterious race of creatures that attack people based on one of their senses. Not to mention, they came out the same year. To be fair, the “Bird Box” novel had already been released four years before “A Quiet Place” came out, so it’s not like this film is a rip-off. That doesn’t make “Bird Box” any better, unfortunately, as it has several drawbacks that prevent it from being a truly good film.
Where the film suffers the most is in pacing and structure. Having two corresponding timelines sounds interesting enough, but its execution here is very poor. The future timeline featuring Malorie’s journey is decent enough, but it feels like more focus is placed on the other timeline set in the past. This wouldn’t be too bad except these sections are nowhere near as interesting as those that take place in the future. There are still a few moments of character development and suspenseful sequences involving the creatures; including a clever scenario where the survivors have to drive to a grocery store with blacked out windows, only using a GPS to find their way there. But for the most part, the survivors seem to just sit around and talk without anything interesting being said.
That would have been somewhat bearable, if only the cast wasn’t so hit-or-miss. Malorie is the best character shown, largely due to Bullock’s committed performance. While Malorie isn’t exactly the most interesting protagonist in cinema, Bullock perfectly captures the fear, anxiety and bleakness one would have during an apocalyptic event like this. Whether it’s during small talk with an acquaintance or an intense action sequence, Bullock commits 100 percent and never sounds like she’s phoning it in at any point. Tom (Trevante Rhodes) also stands out; not only serving as a decent companion for Malorie, but also as a likable character on his own.
Less than stellar is the supporting cast, which ranges from bland to downright awful. Worst of all has to be Douglass (John Malkovich) the owner of the house the survivors reside in. Not only is he very unlikable in the way he handles letting people in his house during the crisis, but Malkovich’s odd performance makes it hard to take his character seriously. Another eyesore has to be Felix (Colson Baker; rapper Machine Gun Kelly), a whiny and annoying nuisance who always has something to complain about; all while contributing next to nothing for the entire group. Other survivors present aren’t as bad, but they sadly aren’t given any proper development or enough screen time for them to be more interesting.
While still a well-made film on a technical level and benefiting from a solid lead, “Bird Box,” suffers from uneven pacing and a less-than-stellar supporting cast. Perhaps this film is often compared to “A Quiet Place” because while it has a similar concept and storyline, the latter did a much better job. Those looking for a higher-quality suspense thriller should watch that film instead; and as for “Bird Box,” they should shield their eyes from this mediocre and meaningless mess.