A Quiet Place. Bird Box. Each movie has a different part to them, but they’re essentially, the same movie. Every movie has something that makes their film unique, but it didn’t take me long to realize that these two are waaaaay more similar than I had thought. So today, we’re gonna be comparing these two movies: A Quiet Place and Bird Box. We’ll be judging each movie by a few guide points: seeing which one is more compelling, has a better story, executed that story better, and which one was more enjoyable. I will let you know which movie wins a category. At the end of the blog, we’ll ad up the points and see who won. Let’s begin.
Please note, that this is my opinion, and that this is always up for debate. Also SPOILERS for both movies.
Before we start, I’m gonna briefly explain these two movies.
A Quiet Place is about a family trying to survive from these alien monsters that have invaded the earth. The creatures hunt by listening. They have extensive hearing, but cannot see. The family consists of a father, mother, and two kids (a boy and a girl). When the mother becomes pregnant, things began to fall apart as they try to survive.
Bird Box has a similar story line, but they try to go a more darker route. A Quiet Place is PG-13, while Bird Box is rated R. This gives them a little more freedom than A Quiet Place had. Bird Box follows Sandra Bullock’s character as she and her two kids try crossing a river without being killed by these creatures. These creatures will cause you to kill yourself if you look at them. In response, people where blindfolds. Bird Box bounces between her and her two kids trying to cross the river and a time five years ago, when the attacks first started.
Which Movie Gets You More Emotionally Invested?
When comparing these two films, you’ve got to keep in mind what we’re comparing. We’ve got two, very similar films. They have both have a goal, which is to survive. For Bird Box, that’s crossing the river to get to the safe haven, but with A Quiet Place, it’s figuring out how to kill the monsters while keeping the children safe. John Krasinski has said that A Quiet Place isn’t just a thriller/horror, but it’s about parenting also. With this in mind, we know that John Krasinski was creating this movie with the intention of getting you emotionally invested.
When watching A Quiet Place, it’s a lot easier to become invested with this family. You sympathize with them for loosing a loved one in the beginning of the movie, and you begin to create an emotional bond with each person. A Bird Box attempted to do the same thing, with having Malorie’s sister dying. Another similarity between the two movies, but what one thing A Quiet Place does, that Bird Box doesn’t is have very few people in the movie. A Quiet Place has four people that you care about. Lee, Evelyn, Regan, Marcus, and Beau(who dies early on). Any other character you don’t get emotionally invested in, but when something happens to these people, you get tense, scared, and worried for them. A Quiet Place does a great job getting you emotionally invested in these characters.
Bird Box does that too, but unlike A Quiet Place, they have many characters that they’re trying to get you to like. They slowly begin to have each one die, but some of them are dying before you even get to know them. And when you have the flash backs between Malorie five years ago and the present, you only see Malorie, so therefore you kinda assume that the rest die. You don’t really want to get emotionally invest in someone if you know they’re gonna die. Tom and Douglas are great examples. They died later in the movie, and gave you time to enjoy them, but like Lucy and Charlie dying wasn’t as big of a deal, because you weren’t emotionally invested in them.
This was just one example in describing which movie does a better job getting you emotionally invested. I personally believe that A Quiet Place does a better job in getting you emotionally and physically involved in the movie. I believe they do this by having fewer characters in the movie, that way your connected to only four people instead of ten. They also didn’t kill off any characters until the end, and having it where you can’t make a sound makes you REALLY uncomfortable while watching. You want to make a noise, but you’re afraid you’ll die. Bird Box does a great job too, but I think A Quiet Place does a better job. One point for A Quiet Place!
A Quiet Place: 1
Bird Box: 0
Which One Has a Better Story and Which One Presented It Better?
Now, this one is completely objective, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I’m not only going to grade this by my opinion, but also if it’s “realistic” and how they present the story.
Let’s start with Bird Box. Bird Box’s story can be a little more intense than A Quiet Place. A Quiet Place starts off a couple of hundred days after the aliens have attacked, but Bird Box shows you both sides. When the attack first happens and after. This was a great idea, in my opinion, and it was a smart move. This helps you build a better relationship with Malorie, but on the downside if kinda gives you less time to bond with the children. That’s not a huge deal though.
A Quiet Place presents its story clear and simple: if they hear you, they hunt you. Bird Box is a lot more complicated than A Quiet Place. It’s not just about the creatures that’ll make you want to kill yourself, but also the people who go crazy when they look at the monster. I call these people psychopathic monster worshipers. When they see the creatures they react differently. They want other people to look at the monster too. Also, the reason for the title, birds can some how sense when a crazy person or when the creature is around. It’s a little more complicated than A Quiet Place.
Now, simple isn’t bad, but I do think that Bird Box had a little more potential in the way they could have presented it. I felt like it was distributed evenly, but that it was just a little too much. I think they just tried to hard to be different than A Quiet Place.
For my next judgement I’m gonna give it to A Quiet Place. The reason is I think that since A Quiet Place is simpler and was executed better, but I do believe the Bird Box has more potential than A Quiet Place. So for story line, I’m gonna give it to Bird Box, but for executed better I’m gonna give it too, A Quiet Place.
A Quiet Place: 2
Bird Box: 1
Which Movie Was Just Better
This segment isn’t just gonna be my opinion, but it’ll be based off of reviews, and how the movie was filmed: 1) Did the film flow well, 2) was the dialog well written, and 3) how were the reviews?
Bird Box did a great job flowing between scenes. With changing your time line back and forth, they did a good job distinguishing each part. The movie seemed to be natural with each part. It did get a little staggered in the middle, but it caught up and fixed itself right away. The dialog of the movie was pretty good too. It was little awkward at some points. Specifically, one point I’m talking about is when Cheryl let’s Gary into the house. I wasn’t a fan of how that was written in the script, but it wasn’t enough for me to get upset over it.
A Quiet Place also was very well written. Like Bird Box they did a good job flowing between each scene. Unlike Bird Box, A Quiet Place didn’t switch between different time lines, but they did have multiple person story lines happening at once. At one point there are three different stories going on: The mom is in labor, the father and his son are on their way back, and Regan is visiting her dead brother. This film did a great job of dividing each character’s part enough so it wasn’t staggered. The dialog in A Quiet Place was very strong. It was more about doing anything for your kids, and I enjoyed the realistic side of the way the kids were acting.
When it comes to the reviews of the people A Quiet Place has a 95% on rotten tomatoes and a 4 1/2 star review on Fandango.
When it comes to the reviews for Bird Box, it has an 60% on rotten tomatoes and a 4 star review on Fandango.
So with all of this in mind, I’m gonna give this round to A Quiet Place. I believe that A Quiet Place was just better directed and it seemed to have a bigger purpose than Bird Box. Bird Box was just about surviving, and parenting was also thrown in there, but A Quiet Place really captured the essence of it’s purpose: parenting. This leaves our score at:
A Quiet Place: 3
Bird Box: 1
Bonus Round: Which Movie Has the Better Monster?
Each movie has a monster. In A Quiet Place it’s this:
It’s very similar to the monster in Stranger Things, but it’s different enough to not be a complete copy. I love this monster because of it’s amazing look. I mean…look at that! I love this monster…like a lot.
Now, the Bird Box monster is different. I would show you, but then you’d try to kill yourself…
Kidding! But we actually don’t have a picture of the monster in Bird Box. All we have are these drawings from Gary:
I think this concept is very neat and special, but I do think that it’s a little loose. I like the concept of the monster. I just wish we had an actual picture of the monster. Like I wish we actually saw one of the drawings above, but I do think this is cool.
Still, I’m gonna give this point to A Quiet Place.
Final Score!
A Quiet Place: 4
Bird Box: 1
I liked both films a lot, but I just personally believed that A Quiet Place had a better structure and story line then Bird Box. I loved each film, and each movie is great in it’s own way.
Thanks you guys for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post, and let me know if you enjoy more posts like this. Comparing movies and more! Alright, I’ll see y’all next time!
Jmanthoughts 