Bird Box

[MinistroRaven]

Has anyone here watch this movie?
I have seen tons of memes on Facebook and also many people claiming this is a great movie, I am planning on watching it today after UFC has ended.
Thoughts?

[Ben_Jamin]

Nope. And likely never will. Although some of the memes are quite funny.

I heard it was ok. My cuz said the ending didn't pay off for him.

[gmillerdrake]

Here’s my take I posted in another thread:

Watched the NETFLIX Movie Bird Box with Sandra Bullock. While I thought it was interesting it was tough not to link it almost directly to 'The Happening' from M. Night Shyamalan.....essentially the same idea although this movies twist was you were only infected if you 'saw it'. Also, despite having not seen 'A Quiet Place' (yet) I know the gist of that movie and this effort from NETFLIX just felt like a someone in a room full of people that were brainstorming ideas just said "How about we do the 'Quiet Place' but only instead of hearing we use sight?"

There were some 'tense' moments but for me   SPOILERS


....it lost me at the trip down the river. A random man standing in the river in the middle of nowhere trying to 'get' them.......then the rapids when the boat flipped and she still finds the two kids!? Especially the condition of the rapids they depicted on screen. Reality is they all drowned....movie setting at least one of those 5 years old kids should have never been seen again.....movie is she finds them while blindfolded merely yards apart. Then, this magical 'safe' utopia in the middle of the woods....also in the middle of nowhere??

I didnt' 'hate the movie but it's right on the cusp of me being ticked off I wasted the 2 hours watching it rather than a different selection.

[gmillerdrake]

I heard it was ok. My cuz said the ending didn't pay off for him.

First half hour or so it’s a pretty neat movie......then....well, it turns quickly to lazy rubbish.

[MinistroRaven]

Couldn’t wait after UFC so I watched right away.

My take on the movie:

The “creatures” (or whatever they were) symbolize depression. Children symbolize hope. Birds symbolize happy moments and memories that should be protected and that helped at critical moments. Fugitives who did not use bandages symbolize people who appreciate death.

All the people who were in the house were going through difficult times and linked to depression. An unwanted pregnancy, the recent death of the wife or husband, the rejected nerd, the woman with a lack of self-love who is always looking to please others.

Everyone was at some critical moment, but trying to recover. However, the shadows, which symbolize depression, came to attack thoughts for suicide.

Finally, we are presented with the blind, and those would be those who learned to deal with depression and understood that despite the difficulties, the birds were always going to help.

[Adami]

Not gonna watch the movie cause it looks dumb and I don't like Sandra Bullock, that said....


Are you saying that, given your analogy, acknowledging your depression is bad and that people should blind themselves to it? Or are you saying it's a commentary on the catch 22 of depression whereby accepting it leads to insanity but denying it leads to its own insanity?

[gmillerdrake]

Couldn’t wait after UFC so I watched right away.

My take on the movie:

The “creatures” (or whatever they were) symbolize depression. Children symbolize hope. Birds symbolize happy moments and memories that should be protected and that helped at critical moments. Fugitives who did not use bandages symbolize people who appreciate death.

All the people who were in the house were going through difficult times and linked to depression. An unwanted pregnancy, the recent death of the wife or husband, the rejected nerd, the woman with a lack of self-love who is always looking to please others.

Everyone was at some critical moment, but trying to recover. However, the shadows, which symbolize depression, came to attack thoughts for suicide.

Finally, we are presented with the blind, and those would be those who learned to deal with depression and understood that despite the difficulties, the birds were always going to help.

I appreciate your attempt to give some sort of 'meaning' to that movie....but....if that is what they were going for they missed the mark greatly. It was just a bad movie. Outside of the opening scene with Bullock and her sister to where it's made clear she's depressed and shut herself off from the world....there is zero attempt from them to develop any of the other characters. After the opening 20-30 minutes the movie just declines at such a rapid pace it starts to become comical. The only thing that kept me watching until the end was I just had to see how they were going to end that movie. And...when I saw it....I was upset with myself for sticking around.

[MinistroRaven]

Well I am not saying that’s what they were aiming for, hence my “my take...”

I didn’t like the movie either, I was just thinking on it after I watched it

I could have easily spent those 2 hours on the first episodes of season 2 of Stranger Thing

[TioJorge]

SPOILERZ

Pretty mediocre film that had a great start and lots of potential to be a sci/fi hit that utterly eroded by the second half. But it very obviously focused on the human/drama aspect of it and essentially said fuck the sci/fi aspect, which is fine if it had a deeper point to make, except that the "twist" was quite literally the first question I had after the whole testing of secondary-visual affects of seeing Them on a computer screen; right after that I asked "and the blind?"  I'm sure others asked it immediately upon knowing it was sight that screwed you. I liked the aspect of certain psychotic people or those just prone to violence actually "gaining power" from Them.

Then there's Them. Zero answers, which I'm sure is most people's issue with it. It's a part of the issue but to me it's the nail in the coffin because of my love for the genre. Any sci/fi film kind of teeters on the why's. Even if a lot of the greatest stories don't have resolute answers, there's at least some kind of lore behind whatever the movie is focusing on. Here, it's void of any substance. Like The Happening, it might as well not even be spirits/otherworldly creatures or aliens as the movie heavily implies but instead some moronic throwaway answer like "That's nature, bruh". They obviously have purpose, point, and can even coordinate with one another (when three of them chase the kids and mom at the end) but can't open doors and apparently can't even sneak in through windows/open doors...there's just so many issues.

I was really into it in the beginning and the whole outbreak portion played out great, it was pretty tense and interesting. It just sucks that what should've been the beginning was actually the climax.

[gmillerdrake]

SPOILERZ

Pretty mediocre film that had a great start and lots of potential to be a sci/fi hit that utterly eroded by the second half. But it very obviously focused on the human/drama aspect of it and essentially said fuck the sci/fi aspect, which is fine if it had a deeper point to make, except that the "twist" was quite literally the first question I had after the whole testing of secondary-visual affects of seeing Them on a computer screen; right after that I asked "and the blind?"  I'm sure others asked it immediately upon knowing it was sight that screwed you. I liked the aspect of certain psychotic people or those just prone to violence actually "gaining power" from Them.

Then there's Them. Zero answers, which I'm sure is most people's issue with it. It's a part of the issue but to me it's the nail in the coffin because of my love for the genre. Any sci/fi film kind of teeters on the why's. Even if a lot of the greatest stories don't have resolute answers, there's at least some kind of lore behind whatever the movie is focusing on. Here, it's void of any substance. Like The Happening, it might as well not even be spirits/otherworldly creatures or aliens as the movie heavily implies but instead some moronic throwaway answer like "That's nature, bruh". They obviously have purpose, point, and can even coordinate with one another (when three of them chase the kids and mom at the end) but can't open doors and apparently can't even sneak in through windows/open doors...there's just so many issues.

I was really into it in the beginning and the whole outbreak portion played out great, it was pretty tense and interesting. It just sucks that what should've been the beginning was actually the climax.

Pretty much nailed it. Like I said, and now you.....the beginning of the movie started off promising and intense....then just.....fell off drastically.



SPOILERS:


I thought the 5 year time jump was a bit much. There’s a lot to explain there with first and foremost being how the F did they find/provide food for themselves and the kids? Especially infant kids? Really hard for me to get past that aspect of keeping those kids alive that long without any major issues.


And I can’t get over the fact that there was a random school for the blind out in the middle of nowhere next to a river......and then.....her old OBGYN just happens to be there? 

[The Walrus]

Just finished it. Terrible ending. Boring and predictable after the first half hour. Some interesting moments but that's about it. Honestly a bit annoyed I wasted two hours on this. Why is there so much hype about this...?

[Adami]

So............I assume, based solely on the title of the first movie, and the plot of this movie, and it's a sequel to The Blind Side?

[faizoff]

The movie is based on a book which came out before A quiet place started filming so I don't think Netflix just saw the success of the movie and decided to make it. I haven't seen the happening so can't compare to how similar this would be.

I agree with most of the reviews about it starting great and then just kinda fading with a disappointing ending. However I think I'm ok with the ending. There are issues with the movie, with some pacing and some character development. It could've used a bit more exposition with the creatures I guess.
I imagine reading the book would give more background, I found this article that compares differences https://nerdist.com/bird-box-movie-book-differences/

At least we got an amazing soundtrack from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for the movie.

[TioJorge]

^ YES. I forgot to mention that. The soundtrack was fantastic.

That dude confuses the fuck out of me. I really didn't like the last NIN "album" of the trio of albums he released but I love ALL his film scores. Maybe he should stick to films from now on...

[faizoff]

I think it's my 2nd fav Reznor & Ross soundtrack of theirs. I also can't wait for them to release all the additional material they wrote, almost an hour from what I remember.
I've been listening to it repeatedly since it came out.
And with regards to the trilogy of NIN music that came out, it's quite a grower for me personally. Having seen some of those songs performed live also changes your perception of those tracks and I really hope they release a live recording of some sorts from this tour. It was quite the rotating list of setlists.

[Fritzinger]

On basically my first evening free from studying this month (/year lol), I decided to watch Bird Box. VERY good movie in my opinion, but an ending [SPOILER] that is just a little too happy. Also I thought the ending came a little too soon. But in the middle of the movie there were quite a few moments where I sat on the edge of my couch. And also there were quite a few moments where I went "wow I didn't expect that", for example the scene where [SPOILER] John Malkovitch's wife slowly went toward the burning car and calmly sat down in the driver's seat, burning to death. Great scene.
While it's a good movie, I think that more could have been made out of the idea.

By the way; maybe it's the makeup, but Sandra Bullock is 54 years old?? Wow!

[lonestar]

Watched it the other day, very meh. I'm all for sci/fi premises, but I do need some sliver of premise to be involved, and not just create some plot tool that makes it impossible for the protagonist without any outward explanation. Just lame and lazy.

[faizoff]

I honestly feel if they had a better director for the movie, it would've been a lot more captivating. I think all the ingredients are there to make it a solid post apocalypse movie but the second half just doesn't seem that entertaining.

[gmillerdrake]

The time jump killed it for me. I didn’t believe any of what they were selling after the time jump. From the two kids surviving.... in ‘that’ world......from the still looking/acting like it was the first days/weeks when they went outside......a random guy in the river in the middle of nowhere......a random school for the blind in the middle of nowhere.....etc etc. it was all hard to take for me.

I’d have preferred them spend 5/10 minutes and/or a scene or two showing their progression to that five year point. Plus, I think the wrong sister died in the car. Sarah Paulson would have been a better lead IMO.

[TioJorge]

This is definitely my more masochistic side talking but it would've been so much more intriguing and mentally stimulating for them to show the blind people earlier on and that they were all slaughtered and the writers have a reason that the blind people can be affected too. I dunno, I just hate that the second it was made clear that you have to "see" them (although they did have at least a sliver of intrigue with the whole computer screen, "secondary sight" aspect, but it should've been expanded), I called the blind aspect as the saving grace. I was super sad when I found out I was right considering I said it as a joke (more or less, at the time I didn't realize how unoriginal the film was).

It's just one of those things that's so obvious that you might not call it right away but when it's shown you're like "OH FUCK YOU".  I have no idea how this movie got as popular or widespread as it is but I think it REALLY shows how dull minded a lot of these fuckers are. Makes it a lot easier for lazy writers to get by now that this shit has blown up. Fuuuuuuuuuuck.  Not to say that anyone that likes this movie is dull minded, not at all. You like what you like. But I will say that it'd be shortsighted to say that it isn't an aspect.

Also fuck them for killing off B.D. Wong (and so early). That man is amazing.