I took a break from blogging to recover from the daily series I ended last year with that I probably should've planned out more. I've also been sick for the past few days, but I decided to bite my tongue and do a new blog regardless. I decided on a 2018 Netflix movie called Bird Box. It was directed by Susanne Bier, written by Eric Heisserer, and based on the novel by Josh Malerman. It stars Sandra Bullock, John Malkovich, BD Wong, Lil Rel Howery (the TSA guy from Get Out) and Machine Gun Kelly of all people. I guess he needed to find work after he lost his M&M sponsorship. Bird Box quickly became popular (most likely due to the memes), so I decided it was fitting to have my first review of 2019 be of this movie. Does it live up to the hype? Well, yes and no. Let me explain.
Firstly, the acting is very good. Sandra Bullock knocks it out of the part as usual, as does John Malkovich. Trevante Rhodes was great as Tom (him and Sandra had adorable chemistry). Sarah Paulson was good for the small amount of time she was in the movie. I'll give credit to Machine Gun Kelly for acting alongside cinematic greats like Malkovich, Wong, and Bullock and not making a fool out of himself. That's not easy to do, considering he hasn't done that many movies prior to this. Full props to him. The child actors playing Boy and Girl (which indeed is what their names are until they're given proper names in the third act) aren't that good, but I can't be too judgemental since most child actors aren't. Jackie Weaver was good, Danielle Macdonald was good, Lil Rel was good, BD Wong was good. The extras do a serviceable job, too. Given how a lot of them only existed to be killed off, they did it well). The acting, on the whole, was relatively solid. Best actor awards go to Bullock for bring me to tears at the end, and to Malkovich for being such a jerk but playing it realistically. That's good word to use to describe the characters: Realistic. When they make stupid decisions (as characters in horror films tend to do), you still feel for them because you know they're coming from a place of logic. John Malkovich's character is mean and impulsive, but he's like that for a reason. All of the characters have distinctive personalities, and their reasonings for being that way are, for the most part, explored. The ones that aren't are still presented as interesting and realistic people, so that's a plus.
The cinematography in Bird Box is great. The landscapes the film shows off are beautiful, and the camera does a great job of showing it to us. I love the sweeping shots of the river or of the forest. The shots that take us into Sandra's POV while she has the blindfold on were really cool. It gives us a taste of what she sees, and it makes her plight even greater. I also liked the way the director shot the characters. Different camera angles were used to express different emotions. That's an easy trick for a director to do, but it's also an effective one. Suzanne Bier was a great choice to direct it. This movie uses extreme close-ups and wide shots very effectively in certain places. Namely, when Sarah Paulson first sees the creatures, the camera zooms in on her face to show her distress turning into confused happiness. I'll give credit to the screenplay, too. Realistic dialogue, a decent-sized handful of funny likes (mostly coming from MGK), and a surprising amount of heart in a couple scenes. All of those things are thanks to Heisserer's scriptwriting. As slow as the movie is for most of it, it does have some genuinely intense scenes. The scene where a few of the survivors are driving to the store for a supply run was brilliantly paced, written, and filmed. So was the part when Sandra, Boy, and Girl go down the rapids in their rowboat. Again, this movie has a very slow start, but I was invested.
I've been giving this movie a decent amount of praise, but I do have some unkind things to say about it. Let's get the big one out of the way now: The story. Overall, it's pretty intriguing. An epidemic breaks out that causes people to kill themselves if they see these monsters that started sprouting up since the breakout happened. It reminds me of A Quiet Place, except with sight instead of sound. I haven't read the book (I didn't even know there was one until I saw the movie), so maybe it goes into more detail about the story, but this movie had a habit ot introducing all these new and interesting additions to the story and then never exploring them. Birds will freak out if the creatures are nearby. That's intriguing, but it's never explored. Some people don't immediately kill themselves and instead decide to devote their time to making other people look at the creatures. That's interesting, but it's never explored. You're affected by the creatures even if you see one through a TV or a monitor. That's actually pretty cool, but it's never explored. We never get to see what these monsters look like, what they sound like, or what they're called. Now, you could argue that the mystery surrounding them just adds to the suspense, and it sometimes does, but it would've been nice to have at least gotten a hint of what the scary thing is supposed to be other than shadows. You can only take the Jaws approach for so long until it gets annoying. Hopefully, there'll be a sequel that can do more world-building.
I'm also not a big fan of how clunky the exposition dumps are. Some of the characters will unrealistically say stuff that happened to them in the past, which is especially maddening when you consider how great the characters are in every other regard. Paulson and Bullock awkwardly mentioning that they didn't have a father to the nurse while Bullock is getting an Ultrasound was really weird. It's never brought up again, either, so it feels like it was only there to make you care about Bullock more. Malkovich awkwardly detailing his relationship with his recently deceased wife to Bullock was very strange, and felt like it only existed to make you care about Malkovich more. The dialogue is great, aside from the hiccups with the exposition. Also, the two storylines conflict a lot. I have nothing against flashbacks, but this movie performs the time jumps a little sloppily. The movie also sometimes presents the viewer with scenes that could be intense, but then never gives them to us. Example: The rapids. It's already an intense scene, but it could've been made a lot better by the fact that it was initially said that one of the kids had to look at the waves and help Bullock steer while also avoiding the monsters. Can you imagine how intense that would've been? That could've been the best scene in the movie, but it ended up not happening. Also, what happened to Machine Gun Kelly? Him and a female cop leave the movie about halfway through it and aren't seen again. Did they die? Are they still on the run? We don't know.
But, surprisingly, the movie picked up at the start of the third act. The pieces of the storyline that the movie does give us start to fall into place as Bullock, Boy, and Girl finally make it to the place they were sailing to. The ending is very effective. Most of the named characters either leave the movie or are killed off, the flashback world finally catches up with the rowboat storyline, a couple things that are set up in the first acts pay off in the last one, and then we get to the last scene. Sandra and her kids make it to a hospital for the blind, the nurse from one of the first scenes comes back into the movie, Sandra finally gives names to Boy and Girl (which made me tear up, by the way). Boy is named Tom and Girl is named Olympia (should've been Cinderella, but it was still sweet). And then the movie ends. Well, it doesn't really "end" per se, it's more like "the movie just kinda stops". It leaves it open for a sequel at the same time as temporarily giving the main character a break from the madness. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel. It could do more to build up the world, maybe explore exactly what caused the epidemic, it can show us more of the monsters. Maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't. Just a thought.
But, surprisingly, the movie picked up at the start of the third act. The pieces of the storyline that the movie does give us start to fall into place as Bullock, Boy, and Girl finally make it to the place they were sailing to. The ending is very effective. Most of the named characters either leave the movie or are killed off, the flashback world finally catches up with the rowboat storyline, a couple things that are set up in the first acts pay off in the last one, and then we get to the last scene. Sandra and her kids make it to a hospital for the blind, the nurse from one of the first scenes comes back into the movie, Sandra finally gives names to Boy and Girl (which made me tear up, by the way). Boy is named Tom and Girl is named Olympia (should've been Cinderella, but it was still sweet). And then the movie ends. Well, it doesn't really "end" per se, it's more like "the movie just kinda stops". It leaves it open for a sequel at the same time as temporarily giving the main character a break from the madness. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel. It could do more to build up the world, maybe explore exactly what caused the epidemic, it can show us more of the monsters. Maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't. Just a thought.
Bird Box is an okay movie. I can certainly see why it became so popular, but, personally, I was left with a bittersweet feeling after I finished it. It started out slow and clunky, but it really started to pick up when the third act started. Ultimately, I enjoyed the movie. It was interesting. 7/10. I might just have to pick up the book and give it a read. Well, thanks for reading this. I apologize for taking this long to get to the movie, but here it is. Stay tuned for another year of reviews, editorials, and whatever else I decide to write here at Throw The Harpoon. I also have a couple projects I'm working on, one of which I'm hoping to get started within the next few months. Don't do the Bird Box challenge, it's dangerous. Keep the memes coming, though. I can appreciate them more now that I know the context.
