BIRD BOX

                        Bird Box: Just Another Netflix Supernatural..

 
When a mysterious force decimates the population, only one thing is certain if you see it, you die. The survivors must now avoid coming face to face with an entity that takes the form of their worst fears. Searching for hope and a new beginning, a woman and her children embark on a dangerous journey through the woods and down a river to find the one place that may offer sanctuary. To make it, they'll have to cover their eyes from the evil that chases them -- and complete the trip blindfolded.

 
This is another of Netflix's supernatural suspense drama. It has striking similarities to Annihilation, in the sense that the supernatural occurrence gets practically no explanations as to its origins or at the very least, it's end. It perhaps explains why The Rain was a failure of a tv show. Perhaps it is about time for Netflix to produce a supernatural movie with the right origin or derivative. It has become quite old and boorish to write a script and throw various characters on the defensive, fighting a battle they know not how to win.
That having been said, let us begin with the positives in this movie. First off, the casting is great, it's quite different, throwing in various mix of actors. Sandra Bullock(Malorie) brought experience and mastery of script, same with John Malkovich who has seen it all and done it all. Machine Gun Kelly, Trevante Rhodes, Danielle McDonald, Ril Rel Howery all brought something different to the movie. Some where hilarious, others were genius while the others were nondescript.
This may come off as being a positive, but in the long run it may not have been. The movie struggled for identity and never really managed it due to the multiplicity of character/ cast inclinations.
The concept itself was unique, original and captivating. It's development into a plot and it's consequent derivative conflict element is what however let the movie down. Having agreed to a large degree that Netflix knows how to get a master story teller, it was nothing short of a let down with the storytelling in this movie. Everything sort of came out a little off and incredulous. It lacked believability and consequently was not relatable in the least bit way. We would have hoped that the presence's effects on the human mind be explored a little bit more to allow the viewers experience what the victims saw, taking that away from viewers created a situation where fans concerned themselves with 'who dies next' rather than follow the characters on their trials and tribulations. It just sort of came off.
   The above directly affected the conflict itself. It wasn't one that was solid, the concept itself is good, and if developed the right way, it could have been brilliant. But it was as though the producer and the script writer just wanted to empower women with this supernatural piece, much like they did with the failed Annihilation project. Having a good conflict does not end at having a brilliant context for conflict, if also entails developing every aspect of the plot to converge on the conflict while giving the characters the opportunity to develop along with the conflict. This in our opinion always makes the content easy to relate with and the believability good as well. All of these were absent in this movie, as the producer just put together a group of people and had them put on blindfolds in the hope that something clicks, and it just never did click. The machinery for the movie was not oiled, and as such the movie could not deliver smooth content.
The pacing of the movie was irregular, occasional highs and lows at terrible moments of the movie meant that some scenes were not only confusing, but ridiculous as well. Moreover the scripting team never factored in the fact that those not affected needed an explanation as to why they were not affected. We were left to speculate, and that right there is what makes movies fail to impress. The story teller owns everything and controls the narrative, immediately he loses sight of that and allows the audience to speculate or fill in the blank, he has lost the audience and such work cannot succeed on its own merits.
In a nutshell it's a good movie you may want to pick up and see in your spare time, definitely not worth your cinema money, but worth your download data. It can keep you intrigued with its early goings, but you will realise its not worth following the concept till the end, rather more interest is put into how it ends and who survives.
  The journey to the sanctuary, as hard and relatable as the producers sought to make it appear came off as surreal, they never really faced any threat and we knew Malorie wasn't going to make the hard choice between two children. That was another instance where the movie lost the audience. There is no reason why they all made it unscathed without making hard choices but relying on pure intuition.

Starring: Sandra Bullock, John Malkovich, Lil Rel Howery, Trevante Rhodes, Danielle McDonald, Machine Gun Kelly
Directed by: Susanne Bier
Produced by: Chris Morgan, Barbara Muschietti, Scott Stuber, Dylan Clark, Clayton Townsend
Screenplay: by Eric Heisserer
Based on: Bird Box by Josh Malerman
FCA's AppR: 6.8/10