A perfectly fine, yet unremarkable, post-apocalyptic thriller.

Rating: 6/10 (8 January 2019)

Based upon the novel of the same name by Josh Malerman, Bird Box follows Malorie (Bullock) and a small group of survivors who band together to navigate their way through a world plunged into chaos as an unstoppable force mysteriously drives people into crazed, violent suicides. Unexplainable mass suicides break out all across Europe and the world is left in ruins. Malorie and the other survivors quickly learn that the only way to combat the looming threat is to keep their eyes covered at all times whilst out in the open. If you dare to take a look, something gains control and you die. It's a great premise, but the problem with Bird Box is that it stretches itself far too thin, and much of it feels far too familiar.
Comparisons to M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening (2008) are inevitable, but placing Bird Box in the same league as that disaster would be unfair. The film begins strongly as we are thrown into an exciting and hectic opening as we follow Malorie throughout the chaos as it unfolds before her eyes. People are struck by out of control vehicles whilst others willingly sit within roaring flames, and nobody has any clue as to why. After such a riveting opening, I was expecting the rest of the film to follow suit, but the unfortunate thing is that the film never quite regains the strengths of its great first act. Everything gradually slows down, and it never quite picks itself back up again, with the exception of a few exciting sequences here and there. The performances are perfectly fine though nothing special, but the cast of survivors we find ourselves with aren't developed as well as they should be, including Malorie, resulting in a fairly uninteresting lead. At times the film rings hollow, and the intrigue of its concept is never explored or developed to its full potential. What's worse is that despite its overlong run time, the film doesn't deliver a satisfying ending and provides more questions than it does answers. Bird Box is a decent yet unremarkable post-apocalyptic thriller, falling short of reaching its full potential. A better film is buried here somewhere, but maybe the much desired answers can be found within the book, as is often the case.