ChuckFlixs: Bird BoxBy Chuck VanHoose December 23, 2018On Friday a new Netflix original was released titled Bird Box. It stars Sandra Bullock as a mother of two in a post apocalyptic world. In this world there are mysterious creatures are after them. If you look at the creature it takes on your worst fear and you die. So if you go outside you have to wear a blindfold. The movie is about Sandra Bullock trying to get her kids to safety. In order to do this she must navigate a dangerous river without looking.

Does this sound familiar because if you think so then you’re not alone. You must be thinking of the brilliant film from earlier this year called A Quiet Place. Now some people will tell you not to compare the two movies. They have a point because if you compare a movie it can hurt the quality of it.
But it was hard for me to stop comparing them. The trailers for these movies even have similar scenes. But I’m going to do my best to review it has its own movie. This movie is directed by Susanne Bier

Positives
For the most part I did like Sandra Bullock’s performance with what she was given to work with. But it was nothing like Emily Blunt’s performance in A Quiet Place. Still it was a good performance. I think she carried the film well and it would have been worse if someone else had been cast instead of her. John Malkovich gives a good performance as well and I believe his character’s reasoning behind things. In fact he is one of the most logical characters in the film. There are several times where he has the right idea about how to survive. If I was in this scenario then I would have probably agreed with him. Although I would have changed one of his plans a little.

Middle of the Road
Lil Rel Howery gives an okay performance. I want to see him with more screen times in movies. He gets more time this instead of when he was in Get Out. Trevante Rhodes also gives a pretty decent performance. The cinematography was decent at scenes on the river.

Negatives
I understand that this isn’t a horror film but it’s supposed to be a psychological thriller and suspenseful. However there was only once or twice that I actually felt suspenseful while watching the film. Another part I didn’t like is the film basically starts with the climax of the movie.
Then it goes back and forth between present day and 5 years ago. The 5 years ago part is used to show you have everything started. However everything just starts happening and you aren’t given a lot of information about how everything happens. The constant switching took me out of the film.
This movie could have been great if they had done a few things. I think that more time should have been spent on the characters at the start of them film. Because that’s where most of the interesting things happened. Instead of just a quick five year jump then back to five years ago and so forth. Also I believe this film could have taken 10-15 minutes off and still have been fine.

I would like to say that this movie is okay but I’ll likely forget about it. So it’s between the line of unmemorable and okay. But I’m going to give a slight edge to okay. Again it was hard for me to not compare it to a Quiet Place because A Quiet Place is one of my highest rated films this year.

Rating: 5.7/10

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