Bird Box -2018 – Sandra Bullock
It’s no secret that I often enjoy older movies more than newer ones. I wouldn’t go so far as to consider it a rule but there’s often a lot more “body” to older flicks. Some of the more modern ones tend to tell a story for the sake of bringing along a lot of special effects. I’m not saying that this is the case here since Bird Box is quite short on such extravaganza. The story is told by good acting skills and by telling certain parts in the past tense. I think this is the only way the story could be told really. To tell it as a totally linear story would make the film too tedious. It begins with certain elements and the lets us get one piece of the puzzle at the time. Nice storytelling.
From time to time I find myself getting bored though. Bird box is told in a quite slow pace from time to time. Nothing really happens apart from evolving the characters. And of course to killing characters off. It’s in the nature of this kind of movie that the cast gets smaller and smaller the more the decease is spread. Of course, we cannot be certain if this is a decease coming to those who open their eyes and look at their surroundings. It could just as much be aliens or demons coming up from the depths. In fact, there’s a passage in the movie that brings the mythology of HP Lovecraft to mind. If this thread had been explored further it would have been a much more interesting movie as I see it.
What happens is that Sandra Bullock’s character – Mallorie, is taking her kids on a boat trip down the river to find shelter from the monsters. They have to keep blindfolded on for the entire trip. Ok, this is extraordinary, to say the least. It’s also highly unlikely that they would survive the trip without the sense of sight. But I can but it. It’s in the films universe. I wouldn’t be the first time superhuman tasks are completed in the world inside films. And that is not my objection about the movie either. It’s kinda exciting and tense at times. I wouldn’t lie, some parts of the movie are really good. I especially like the cynism John Malkovich character comes up with. Very sharp stuff.
However. The whole movie was kinda a waste of time. When it’s over you just sit for a while and realize that was all you got. There is no real ending, a pretty lame one at best, No answers but quite a bit och sentimentalism. Yes, I cried at the end. But still, it was a pretty pointless film.
