It’s always nice to start the New Year with a trend, it makes the Christmas blues easier to recover from. Last January it was Logan Paul’s suicide vlog, this January it’s a Netflix original known as Bird Box. While the film certainly helps with settling into the New Year, it’s bland protagonist, ungrounded antagonism and baffling structure makes it an entertaining flick at best.

A mysterious force has dominated the world. Whatever it is, if you see it, you’ll die. Hence when a woman and her children plan to reach a survivors’ colony, they have to journey on a river by boat blindfolded.

The Characters

Bird Box reminds me of Night of the Living Dead with its restricted setting, apocalyptic backdrop and over-the-top characters. Now this isn’t a bad thing, the supporting characters with their exaggerated traits make the film quite compelling. Douglas (John Malkovich) for example is similar in characterization to Night of the Living Dead’s Cooper. He’s a conservative man who isn’t afraid to do what he has to to protect himself. Unlike Cooper however, he’s more empathetic as his motivations behind his actions make sense and are believable for a person in his situation.

Another good example is Charlie (Get Out’s Lil Rel Howery). He provides some decent comic relief that contrasts the film’s mostly serious tone. Even though his role in the film is short, his characterisation is convincing. He works at a supermarket, is writing a dystopian novel and, unlike Douglas, is willing to work for the betterment of the group.

The main character however, Malorie (Sandra Bullock) is very difficult to empathize with.

At the beginning of the film it is suggested that her weakness is her incompetence in being a parent. In a traditionally well-written script, the plot would provide Malorie with obstacles that would force her to confront this weakness and overcome it. This is not the case. Malorie spends the majority of the film simply helping everyone to stay alive. She does develop a relationship with one of the survivors, Tom (Trevante Rhodes) which is quite engaging. Apart from that she doesn’t do a lot, not until the very end but even then, there’s no point where she has to make a specific choice and undergo a clear change. This brings me to the main weakness of Bird Box.

The Plot

The way the plot is structured doesn’t seem to have a clear purpose. Most of the narrative is told in flashback. In the past, the attack has just hit Malorie’s town and she’s trying to survive in the house with the others. As this plot unfolds, we get flashforwards to the present five years later, where Malorie is travelling with her children to the survivors’ colony.

Without giving anything away, this structure doesn’t really do anything but make us wonder how Malorie ended up on the river. That’s the only hook the flashforwards give us. They don’t provide any insight into Malorie’s character or what her decisions in the past have done to her. There’s no reason the narrative should’ve been told this way.

Despite the baffling narrative structure, the plot does have some strengths. Like Night of the Living Dead, the plot provides some tense sequences. For example, when Charlie leads the group to his supermarket to gather food. They drive to the market, blacking out the car’s windows and using the GPS and proximity sensors. Throughout the journey the sensors alert them of obstacles like bodies and other cars, yet they can’t see them and can’t be sure that they’ve avoided them. Another good example is in the flashforwards where Malorie and the children are on the river. They hear numerous noises on the journey, including voices. You feel their vulnerability as they’re on an unpredictable terrain and are completely blind. It brings you to the edge of your seat.

The idea of being killed by an entity by simply looking at it is terrifying and Bird Box executes the idea very well most of the time. Unfortunately, the entity doesn’t get enough development. There’re no rules or restrictions on what it can do as it demonstrates many abilities throughout the film. RedLetterMedia made a similar criticism of the film in an episode of their show Half in the Bag. I absolutely agree with RedLetterMedia on the issue. If the abilities and disabilities of the antagonism are not established, then it doesn’t feel believable and hence not scary. The entity demonstrated so many abilities in the film I didn’t care anymore. I began to assume that whenever the writer had the characters in a safe position, they’d give the entity a new ability to enable them to attack and give a cheap scare.

Overall, Bird Box is worth watching for basic entertainment value. The distinguishable characters and tense plot make the film a very compelling watch at times. However, if you’re expecting the cultural phenomenon that all the hype says it is, I think you’ll be disappointed.

I give Bird Box a mediocre 5 out of 10.