Bird Box Review

Reporter Cara O’Beirne

Bird Box, starring Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, and Sarah Paulson, is the newest drama/horror movie taking the world by storm. Bird Box premiered on Netflix on December 13, 2018, and has been a big topic of conversation since. The movie definitely isn’t everything people hype it up to be. It is good for a one-time watch, but not good enough to watch again. The plot is almost predictable and a bit slow, but the acting is at least decent.

The movie begins in present time, but the movie frequently flashes back to when the ‘epidemic’ was first occurring. Sandra Bullock, playing the main character Malorie Hayes, is pregnant at the beginning while the father of the baby is not present. Malorie continuously calls the pregnancy a “condition” and the baby a “little bean” trying to acknowledge it as little as possible. When the so called monsters begin to appear (or not appear), it becomes evident that changes are coming. At first there is a bit of confusion as to what is happening. But, when people are shown attempting to kill themselves, it is clear: if you see it, you will die. The whole movie is spent by the characters trying to figure out how to go outside without seeing the monsters. A few people flee into a nearby house where they cover the windows and try to survive. The longer Malorie stays in the house, she begins to fall in love with a man named Tom, played by Trevante Rhodes. Eventually, Tom and Malorie flee the house together and with two small children. Once they hear of a sanctuary, they embark on a dangerous journey through forests and down a large choppy river for a chance at a better life for themselves and for the children. But, there is only one downside to this journey, they have to do the whole thing blindfolded.

One of few good things that the movie had was superior acting. Sandra Bullock is a world-renowned, Oscar-winning actress who has starred in more than 45 movies throughout her career. She was a great choice for this roll, as she is very skilled in her acting and is able to play almost any character asked of her. Her emotions seem very real throughout the movie. Bullock is able to use her professional acting skills to do things that most people may find hard, such as yell at children and realistically fight a grown man or two. Along with Sandra Bullock, John Malkovich is another great actor who has starred in over 70 movies and has been nominated twice for an Oscar. In this movie Malkovich is portrayed as a grumpy, unfriendly, futile man who only cares for the safety of himself. This is reasonable considering that his wife died off very early in the movie. Malkovich typically plays the ‘bad guy’ in most of the movies he takes part in, and obviously because he is very good at it. This movie may not have made it so big if it had not been for the actors and actresses.

Although the acting of the story is superior, the plot is very dry and predictable. Like every other apocalypse end-of-the-world kind of movie, there are weird monsters, isolation of the main characters, and the issue of what would happen if a child were brought into a dystopian world. Of course people die; that’s nothing new. This movie is exactly like other popular movies where monsters are brought in and a sense is taken away. Eventually the media will realize that there are so many other movies that are very similar, and Bird Box isn’t as rare.

Bird Box is a very popular movie among the media, but it is not as good as the media makes it appear. It seems like Netflix has used the media, advertising, and their choice of popular actors to bring in the views, rather than a unique story line or plot. This movie is only a good watch one time, but I wouldn’t plan on watching it after that.