Bird Box Movie Review. What Do I Think of it, and Would I Buy it or Rent it??? Spoilers…duh.

Bird Box. I was at a cross road, when deciding to watch this movie. I wasn’t sure if it was gonna be good, I’m a little skeptical of Netflix Originals, and I was afraid it was gonna copy A Quiet Place too much. In a way, all that came true.

The movie was better than I thought it was gonna be. I hadn’t seen a trailer, just what friends and other people had told me, but from what I had heard it sounded a lot like John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place. By the way, if you haven’t checked out my Quiet Place blog post, click this link! But anyway, I decided to watch the movie because of two reasons: Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich.

I love these two actors deeply, and thought to myself, “If these two amazing actors were in it, how bad could it be?” The movie surprised me. It had an interesting story, that made me want to watch it. There was something interesting that happen to me while watching it, but we’ll talk about that later. For now, let’s get into the movie!

Please be warn that this won’t make that much sense if you haven’t seen the movie. I skip some parts in the story and mention some things that, if you haven’t watched won’t understand that well. Ok, lets go!

The basis of the film is staggered from two different time lines. One time line is Sandra Bullock’s character, Malorie, when the creatures first attack. At this time she is pregnant with her son and is with her sister. In the second time line is five years later. The creatures have attacked, and it’s just her and her children trying to escape towards a safe haven that is free of these creatures.

Malorie, five years after the creature’s attack, is trying to take her two kids towards a place that is supposedly safe from the monsters. The fastest way to get to this place is by crossing the river. The problem is…if you look at the monsters, you die. The river also homes the rapids, which are a dangerous part of the journey where you “must look” to see where you’re going. After the rapids you follow the sound of birds until you reach the haven.

Now, hearing this made me think, “Wow, that’s a very specific, detailed, and loose way to find this safe haven. I felt like this was too loose, and the worse part about this, is that you aren’t given a chance to worry about these people. You don’t know them. All you know is that you got a mom, a boy, and a girl who are crossing a river and can’t look outside or they’ll die, and the mom is a very paranoid lady. Like seriously, twitching and pulling out a gun every time you hear someone.

So…you don’t really get a chance to build a relationship with these three characters, but when it flashes back to five years ago it’s a different story. You have Malorie trying to survive with the people in the house. What’s neat about this, is that it’s much more relate able. If this apocalypse was actually happening, this is more accurate to how it would happen, but in my opinion the show was moving a little too fast. Your connecting with Malorie, yes, but you didn’t even have time to connect with her now dead sister.

We loved her horse obsessed sister! But do we really?

But as the movie goes on, you begin to relate to these people. Like Tom, played by Trevante Rhodes. Tom is the marine who is doing what he can do keep the group alive. Or how about Douglas, played by John Malkovich. Douglas is the touchy alcoholic who’s wife died. Each character has a part that is relate able, and that’s why the flashback portion of the show is more enjoyable in the beginning. Even if people are dying, killing each other, or just laying dead on the street.

Now, around the half way mark of this movie, I quit watching it. I only wanted to watch the parts with Tom and Douglas, not Malorie rowing a boat for a few minutes and giving a serious talk to her kids. To me that wasn’t exciting enough because I hadn’t build a big enough relationship with the kids. Malorie I was beginning to grow on, but the kids were just fresh meat…sorry, weird analogy, but anyway, I ended up finishing the movie. And if you’ve been reading this, and been thinking, he really doesn’t like this movie, here’s where you’re wrong.

When I decide to continue to watch the show, I went with a different mindset. I was so curious what was gonna happen that I had to keep watching. I was invested. TO LATE TO TURN BACK!

I kept watching, I began to enjoy the show more. I knew the characters now! Watching them fight their way to the grocery store or fighting off a psychopathic monster worshiper (A.K.A. Gary), is a lot more fun now, because I was invested with the characters. Also, I had grown to like Malorie’s character a lot more now!

So as I kept watching the show I began to enjoy the concept. The idea of not being able to see was actually really cool, and having psychopathic monster worshipers (That’s what I’m calling them) is pretty cool. They bring a new thrill to the movie. Now, you can’t just see the monster, but you’ve got to figure out who’s good and who’s bad. This was an intense struggle that I began to enjoy.

So as the show continued, I realized that not all the kids were Malorie’s, but one was also Cheryl’s too. Maybe I should have figured this out sooner, but I began to like this a lot. It explained why Malorie wouldn’t let her son look outside when they neared the rapids. I think this was important because It showed that Malorie was willing to let all of them die, than to let some of them live. I know that sounds a little weird, but I’m writing this at two in the morning and I’m beginning to fall asleep. 🙂

But this shows that Malorie is taking Tom’s advice, and is not just surviving, but living. As Captain B. McCrea said from WALL-E,

I don’t want to survive! I want to live!

Malorie is beginning to learn how to live again, not just survive. Watching Malorie’s character development, is enjoyable. That may not be the best word to use, since it’s a thriller, but I enjoyed watching her grow into an awesome mom.

By the way, I would like to mention that I think it was clever having the birds play the part they did in the movie. They were unique and interesting to watch, and I’m glad that they were in the movie.

And I got to say, one of my favorite parts of the show, even though it’s horrible, is when Tom sacrifices himself for the family. That scene, is amazing. The way he’s like screw it, and opens his eyes and begins to shoot those psychopathic monster worshipers was truly an amazing moment. Even when his eyes began to turn towards the monster, how he was able to shoot the leader was awesome. Tom was by far one of my favorite characters in this movie.

So in the end, would I watch this movie again?

Yes. I think this movie was well scripted and did a good job of making you clench every time you saw someone without a blind fold. I do think the movie took to long to get you invested with the characters, but I think wants they did, that the movie really picked up, and became a great movie. Netflix Originals can scare me sometimes. They’re, usually, either really good or really bad…in my experience. But I did enjoy this movie in the end. It left me thinking, and that’s not always a good thing, but in this case, it was.

And the nice thing is, you don’t have to buy it or rent it, if you have Netflix (which we all know you do). But if you had to buy or rent it, I would buy this movie. I think it brings a certain character and style that more films need today. So thank y’all for reading, and as always, I’ll see y’all next time!

@jmanthoughts
@nerdy4marvel
@birdboxmeme