MovieChat Forums > Bird Box (2018) Discussion > Giant, gaping problem :SPOILERS

Giant, gaping problem :SPOILERS


This movie is very well acted and has some genuinely exciting scenes. There are a few giant problems though.

The film is one giant spoiler. I'm not sure why I put "SPOILERS" in the title, because the film does a perfectly for you.

The structure of the film is abysmal. Instead of letting the story unfold naturally, it gives into the modern trope of skipping ahead of time to future events, removing any kind of tension or mystery from the film.

From the second "flash forward" scene, you know that everyone will die and she will end up with the other woman's pregnant woman's baby. If this was structured in a chronological way, it would add to so much more tension and I would have spent the entire movie on the edge of my seat wondering who would make it out alive.

There are also large pacing issues. It drags in its last act and could have been about 35 minutes shorter and nothing would be lost.

Bird Box: 5.5/10

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How did she get to the wilderness with the blind fold ? Also no night time scenes which I found strange.

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That was the most unbelievable part for me. Navigating the wilderness with a blindfold sounds like a great way to knock yourself out by running straight into a tree.

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she follow the sounds of birds to find the place and the bell ringing to locate her son.

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That's true she does.

I was thinking of those shots while she was with her kids running through the forest with her blindfold on. It doesn't seem like following bird sounds would really help in avoiding semi-serious injury navigating dense brush and trees in a frantic panic.

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Yeah hearing birds wouldn’t help you avoid branches sticking out of the ground or running off a cliff

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What was even more unbelievable than that was when the boat flipped over and everyone somehow managed to make it to safety in the middle of a raging river blindfolded

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IKR???

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The bit that annoyed me the most was just bumping into her midwife in the sanctuary... they have travelled 2 days downriver into the middle of nowhere and bump into someone they know? It didn’t add anything to the story, it was just really annoying.

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aw ya... that was the worst

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Even the birds in the box somehow survived!

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@Fatherstak1987

Well the structure isn't a spoiler, it'a choice from the director or someone else. Yes the flash fowards give you some hints that most people will die. But some didn't (they stole the car and left). On the other hand, some situation are more interesting : who is her child and which one is not ? Why is she shooting a Survivor ?

However, there is a high probability they made that structural choice simply to prepare the audience to the several incoming deaths. If that's the case, the artistic choice is poor.

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They show us adults killing them selves because of the eye devils so with the world completely killed of 5 years later you have to assume even the children were killing themselves at some point.

Pretty dark themes in this movie.

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I thought the same thing. Why have a flashback scene if it takes away from such awesome opportunity for tension. Someone should rearrange bird box to the correct chronological order, and offer that version instead.

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Agreed. Immediately knew the others would be killed off, before she gets into that boat.

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I agree with your last comment here. I find many movies run way over their course for time and can be much shorter without taking anything away from the movie.

The first thing I thought when this movie ended was that I wish it had finished at an hour-and-half or an hour-and-fifteen minutes in. (It ran for about 2:04.)

The movie started off at a fast clip, which I really liked, and maintained a good pace to about halfway. But then it bogged down for the last third of the movie.

Gotta give Netflix credit for putting out some pretty good flicks though. Even this one, which could've been just a little better.

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"From the second "flash forward" scene, you know that everyone will die and she will end up with the other woman's pregnant woman's baby."

*sigh*

Seen Titanic?
Everyone knew what would happen even before the movie even started!
However, in movies like these, it does not matter *what* happens, but rather *how*.

I struggle to understand why some people do not understand that this is a perfectly fine way to tell a movie, especially when well done like here. I read so much shit about Bird Box and was very positively surprised when I finally got to see it last night, and I am not exactly easy to please compared to all the brain-dead super hero movie crowd.

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Yes, you knew from the first scene that whoever she had met before that point was dead or otherwise gone. I, also would have preferred a chronological telling.
And, it easily could have told the same story in 1:40.

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