Could have been a Classic

Rating: 6/10 (7 January 2019)

Bird Box stars Sandra Bullock as a pregnant single mom trying to survive pandemic where if you open your eyes in the outdoors, you are driven to suicide. A lot of hype and memes surround the Netflix Original film Bird Box. One could argue this film is easily Netflix's most popular film with all the hype surrounding the film. A lot of comparison to another recent film, A Quiet Place are being made. Hype could be both good and bad for anything, with Bird Box the hype punishes the film.
Bird Box is not a complete disaster. The film has a strong cast and solid performances. Where Bird Box suffers, is the lack of cohesion of the film's story. Bird box is based on the novel of the same name by Josh Malerman. I have three major gripes with the film. The first thing, the run time was too long. It did not need to be over 2 hours. Certain points you feel the Director was stretching the story. Second, "the creatures" that were stalking everyone and driving them to madness were never seen or really developed. To me, it seemed like the writer had no idea what and who the creatures were. This could be a fault from the source material (the novel), but since I have not read the novel I cannot say.
The ending. I will not spoil the film for those who still want view the film, but there felt like there was done or basically a cop out. The ending felt cheap or the screenwriter did not know where to go to finish the story so they just ended the story. This as well could be something that came from the original source, if so why did they bother making a film and/or book to begin with. This is poor storytelling. The viewer feels they are only watching a rough draft.
Overall I score this film a 6 out of 10. The film is okay if the weather is bad and you are stuck inside all day, but this is no great apocalyptic film like The Road or a Quiet Place. Netflix swung and missed a hanging curve right in the middle of the plate. I recommended A Quiet Place over this. That film is better in every aspect as is The Road.