Wasted concept

Rating: 3/10 (3 January 2019)

The idea behind the antagonistic force and the political allegory that Bird Box offers is compelling, but neither are expanded upon even remotely enough to provide a satisfying 2 hour experience.
The best word to explain bird box is "confused", with concepts and character arcs that are set up with no interesting exploration or payoff. The rules of the monstorous force are not established or explained, leading to confusing moments regarding how it affects humans differently and what it is actually capable of. The main character is established in an exposition-heavy 10 minute dialogue fest (which I somewhat appreciate for getting to the point, with some decent chemistry with the wasted sister character), but her inner conflicts never come into play to make her interesting until the very end of the 2 hour run time. This character moment is better than nothing, but it undoubtedly required more set up to be powerful in any way. Even the plot device the film is named after - the fact that birds can sense danger, doesn't come into play at all throughout the film, providing only a catchy title.
The characters of the film are mostly unwatchable, with rushed introductions and motivations, no subtlety, and even less originality. Sandra bullock gives the best performance she possibly can with what little character she's given, but none of the other actors stood out to me, all ranging from good to cheesily bad, with John Malkovich giving an awful performance this time round.
Overall, Bird Box is incredibly unsatisfyingly considering it's concept and early reception, which could have worked after a couple more rewrites that fixed issues with the characters, rules, and pacing.