Cast: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, Sarah Paulson, John Malkovich, Lil Rel Howery

Director: Susanne Bier

Network: Netflix

If ‘A Quiet Place’ ever had a sequel, then its new plot could have been exactly similar to what Netflix’s latest movie Bird Box has. The only difference is that A Quiet Place’s sequel would have turned out to be much much better at presenting it, meaningfully.

That’s the thing about ‘Bird Box’ that says it all. It’s a half-baked cake, with a taste that fades away very early than thought.

Netflix’s drama/thriller about a monstrous and mysterious entity that decimates people who see it, had a vast potential to be a fantastic horror flick, but it just didn’t land as expectedly. Actress Sandra Bullock stars as Malorie, who’s a mother of two and on a deadly journey to reach to a safer place, protected from the mysterious force that kills anyone who sees it, keeping the eyes open. So she puts a blindfold on her eyes and her children’s too.

The plot is so catchy and interesting that at first the movie pulls you in very easily and makes a kind-of promise that you’re in for a breathtaking and mindboggling struggle for survival by the main protagonist from an unknown, fatal monstrous entity. But just the moment it could gain that strength, it looses it all. Despite having a similarity of the plot with Paramount Pictures’s ‘A Quiet Place’, it was still appearing to be a ‘solid story’, which, it couldn’t achieve to be, at all.

Another reason is the lack of strong supporting characters. Yes, there are some but they don’t serve the purpose here. And some characters just feel so void that they felt out-of-the-story since it would have been the same scenario even if they were not there.

Irrelevant elements distress you from the ongoing struggle and tension, every time, and which ultimately makes this flick an over 2-hour drama, that could’ve easily been a 1 hour and 30 minute gripping plot. And the real ‘thing’ about which this flick tries to tell you the survival story of its character, actually remains unseen, even till the end! Seriously?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBLK5FAAp1Q]
Director Susanne Bier should’ve kept it more basic and intact as far as the actual, key components of Bird Box are concerned, which are the mother, and her two children, and how they deal with finishing off their dangerous journey to a hopeful destiny. Adding ‘even a few’ things in-between just didn’t fit into it, rightly. In a survival story like this, where there’s the end of the world and all you’ve got is to make yourself the last living person, the objective must be to just stay close to the plot – no moving here and there. And ‘A Quiet Place’ is a perfect example of following this principle.

Despite all this, the film is a one-time watch since the photography looks amazing and attractive, making you feel that atmosphere of an apocalyptic situation. Some really engaging sequences make you interested but leave no impact. But the scenes, going through the river are great to watch.

There’s no other actor or actress in this movie who you can remember for leaving an impression since there’s ‘no connect’ you can make with them, whatsoever.

Bird Box had a lot of things going for it yet it didn’t keep it simple and straight and tried to be a bit extra from what it should’ve been. It makes you want to be involved in it, but you realize very soon that it’s not worth it in ‘that way’. The ending is what it shouldn’t be. And that’s what really ruins this flick, seriously. Because you are left wondering about the danger and how the characters just managed to save themselves from it! The director could’ve tried to make it more understandable and deeper.

Many of the questions remain unanswered which leads to utter disinterest. And it just continues.

These days, there are a lot of talented filmmakers who come up with exceptional horror or survival dramas, so when there’s a weak entry like this, viewers leave no chance of comparison and analyzing too. They are intelligent now.

Bird Box Review: A catchy plot, executed in a lazy style. Image Source: Self-created image by author.