Every contact we've had with the outside has brought us death (Bird Box 2018)

264.

Bird Box

7/10

B is for Bird Box on my run through the A-Z on Netflix. Yet another exclusive to Netflix, I remember the hype about this one when it first arrived. The memes, quotes and opinions were flying around Facebook for weeks and I had someone stayed away from the bandwagon and decided not to watch it right away. This has given me the chance to go in with an open mind and to have forgotten about any potential spoilers that were floating around social media at the time. I knew the usual, Sandra Bullock is the main character, they are blindfolded as if they look at something, it will kill them. That's as far as my knowledge of the movie goes with the movie so let's hope it is something worth seeing.

The movie begins with Sandra Bullock telling two kids that they are going on a trip and it's going to be their most dangerous yet. The first thing I notice is that she is calling them Boy and Girl rather than actual names and I'm instantly wondering whether she knows them. We'll find out because in the tradition so far, Netflix is loving a flashback.

 We leave the trio in a boat on the river and head 5 years earlier to some character development for Bullock's character Malorie. She's an artist, bit of a recluse, has a loving sister and more importantly, she's pregnant. Sarah Paulson plays her sister and I've seen plenty of her in American Horror Story and the two go for a scan of the baby. Before they leave, the sister asks Malorie is she has seen the news. Reports of something causing mass suicides around Eastern Europe. Once it's put on mute, the sisters miss the fact that it has made it to North America via Alaska. When they arrive at the hospital, we are drawn to a female in pink, we get the babies scan and by the time we head out, that lady in pink is smashing her head against the window. Suddenly, shit hits the fan, people are killing themselves everywhere Malorie's sister Jessica sees something whilst she is driving and her eyes turn a shade of black, she crashes the car and the two crawl out.

 Jessica is still mental though as she steps in front of an oncoming bin lorry. Someone comes out of a house to help Malorie inside where a group is taking cover, but she sees something and walks inside a burning car and sits there. Another attempt by a gent works as he covers his and Malorie's eyes and they get in.

Inside the house, we have an array of characters, John Malkovich as the pissed off old guy next door who's wife killed herself when trying to save Malorie. We have Trevante Rhodes, who I have seen in a few things. He plays the guy who managed to finally help Malorie inside. Then there are a couple of side characters who start to get killed one by one. They even let a new, pregnant girl in and they find out that some people who look at whatever it is, are surviving and killing forcing others to look at this 'thing' and looting everywhere. Now in between seeing people getting taken out, we head back to the gang on the river and this dawns on me how much of a spoiler we are actually getting. Constantly seeing Malorie with two youngsters surely means that it is only her, her unborn child and the other woman's child that survives. She states that they are coming up to some rapids and someone needs to look. The lad volunteers but Malorie instantly says no. After a few minutes, the younger girl says she will do it and Malorie isn't exactly jumping to a no reaction. Maybe this means that the lad is her son and the girl is the extra tag along. Our main encounter with one of these acceptors of the killing force, kills everyone but Malorie, the kids and Trevante's character Tom. After this 'follower' is taken out, we fast forward 5 years. A time when our remaining characters are going house to house with a walk talkie and finally they get a reply.  A voice comes over directing them where to go for safety, taking the river and hoping they don't have kids otherwise it would be almost impossible. Tom wants to make the trip but Malorie thinks it's a trap. 

A couple of days later and the decision is made for them. The followers show up in force and Tom distracts them with his life as the others can escape on to the river and we are finally up to date with the timeline. With a close encounter with another follower on the river and getting up to the rapids, Malorie won't let anyone look to guide them through and they'll just hope for the best. Even with a bump along the way, they manage to get to shore with a soaking along the way. The get to a place where they find birds and birds react to these 'monsters' whenever they are near. The need to find the birds and they know they will be safe. Malorie falls down a ditch and the kids are lead away but these 'monsters' pretending to be her, they simply hear her voice and walk towards it. Malorie hears her sister but knows to drown it out, calling the kids back in her direction and saving them. The birds get louder and they find a door, eventually being let in and lead to safety. It turns out that it is a school for the blind that has also taking in some strays, one being the female nurse who did the baby scan for Malorie all of the way at the beginning of the movie. The movie ends with her naming the kids and the boy takes Tom's name whilst the girl gets her mothers. That's it, that's the end.

I enjoyed this more than Annihilation, that's for sure but again I felt there were too many questions left unanswered and I suppose that is the reason for some movies, to make people talk about them but I love a horror movie that finally reveals itself by the end. We never really got to grips with what the mystery figures were, only seeing gusts of wind heading towards people, shadows and a few drawings of different looking beasts but I wanted to set my sights on them myself, even if only for a few minutes. The storyline otherwise was pretty entertaining and full of interesting moments. It had a little bit of 'A Quiet Place' theme towards it but instead of keeping your mouth shut, it was your eyes. The main gripe I would have about how the story was told is once again the non-linear narrative. This time, it acted as a huge spoiler to who was going to survive from the house, which was the main setting for most of the story. 

Trying to think back whether I have watched a movie where we have had Sandra Bullock leading the line and I don't believe I have. This lead role suited her and I could actually sympathise with her at times. Not one for kids and anyone's shit, I could see my own attitude in her. This then carries over to the side characters. My favourite amongst these was definitely John Malkovich as the grumpy neighbour. A lot of the time the others in the house were screaming at him but I found myself screaming in my head at them because he was always on the right track. Everyone else adds a little something, a couple of others are just annoying and you become happy to see them go, that's for sure.

I'm still disappointed that we never got to see a monster, alien or anything along those lines, we only got to see what happened to anyone that looked at this phenomenon. It would be interesting to find out if there is anything in the pipeline to follow on with the story, even if this is without the same characters. Is this it for life now? What happens when the food runs out in the new hideout? These are questions that intrigue me after watching the movie rather than frustrate me like with Annihilation. 

It's not destroying. It's making something new (Annihilation 2018)

263.

Annihilation

5.5/10

With the cinemas closed, I have decided to use the streaming services that I have subscribed to, firstly starting with Netflix. I'm going to watch 27 movies, starting from A going through to Z and then ending with a movie that begins with a number. It's been needed so that I can get around to some recommendations and movie that I should have seen by now, (apparently). Only time shall tell if the wait was worth it. 

Starting with A, my movie is going to be Annihilation starring Natalie Portman and other than it has something to do with weird planets and starring her, I know nothing else. It is a Netflix movie, which means there was never the chance to watch it on the big screen so I hardly feel any guilt in not doing so. Let's start with a quick run-through of the story.

The movie begins with a bit of aftermath to the main story. We have Portman's character sitting in a room with a couple of people in hazmat suits interviewing her. Behind a glass wall, are several others listening in. Questions such as 'does she remember anything?' are floated about, to get the audience asking the same and pretty soon, we know that we won't be following a linear narrative. We have already seen a spacecraft crash into a lighthouse and are still waiting for answers on this. We are thrust back a little while and Portman's character Lena is an educator on cell biology. We find out that her husband is an army man and has been lost for the last year. A colleague is chasing her a little but she is still adamant that she is to remain alone. Looking at her wedding pictures, we see that her husband is played by Oscar Issac and I'm already thinking that he is a little too big of a name to simply be seen in a picture and some flashbacks. A night or two later and we actually see him return home. I thought at first that it might just be her wishing this, as we walked up the stairs but she is as shocked as anybody when it turns out that he is there. But maybe he isn't truly there. He doesn't have any, memories of how he returned, where he was and what happened. He ends up coughing up blood, being in the back of an ambulance and on the way to the hospital, a parade of black jeeps pull them over and take the married couple.

We are now in the location of the interview and Lena is introduced to the main Dr behind this secret ops Dr. Ventress, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. She shows Lena a place called the Shimmer, which is just outside the compound and explains that Kane, her husband was part of a team sent in to explore. He has been the only one to ever return as others are either lost or dead. Kane is on the compound but he is also dying. We know where this is going and Lena joins onto the next team to go in after answers from this event which has started from a lighthouse inside. The team is made up of all women, bringing a different strength and the only other one I recognise is Tessa Thompson.

Once camping inside, the team has already lost a couple of days somehow. Their communications don't work all of this is also being explained by the present-day interview with Benedict Wong's character. The women look like ghostbusters walking around and we are into our new chapter, The Shimmer, as we walk through this planet enriched environment. Lena was in the army for 7 years so she is straight into the role and as one gets attacked by a gator, she shows how to handle a gun. On closer inspection, the gator has shark teeth and the team is wondering if there has been any cross-breeding within the shimmer. The make it to the last place that Kane's team took shelter and a video is left for them to watch. The team is cutting open on of their own, who doesn't seem to be putting up a fight. The video is for education purposes showing something growing inside the man and moving like a snake. The team takes time to digest what they saw and aren't too happy when they actually walk into the location that it happened and the guy is still there. He has seemed to grow like a plant, spiralling up the wall and decomposing. During this time, we have a few more flashbacks to Lena's last moments before Kane left on the mission and then a random sex scene with her colleague from earlier. 

As the team moves on, we lost one to a horrible looking bear, another to the same bear which now growls with the screams of the last victim and Tessa's character, who has plants growing out of her arm, walks off into the forest and away from the following Lena who cannot find her but does find several plants in the shape of people. Before leaving Tessa's character explains a few things about the Shimmer. The Shimmer isn't blocking the signals, it is refracting it, just as it is doing to the DNA of everything inside it. 

The Doctor already left to find the lighthouse so now it is Lena's turn to walk up to it, enter and answer the questions to what the hell is going on. There are skeletons sprawled out, a corpse up against the wall which looks like it had exploded and a hole in the ground with plants growing around it. There is a camera set up and watching the video she sees Kane is the body that explodes and from behind the camera walks another Kane, who they chatted about who was the real Kane and the distortion of reality. This clone is the one who made it back to Lena. Going into the hole, she finds Dr. Ventress whose face is all twisted and she explains that the Shimmer is of an alien nature. She then dissolves into some sort of bright form and Lena's facial cut bleeds into this bright light before it becomes a human form.

 It mimics all of Lena's moves, attacks back when Lena attacks and the only way out is to take another grenade and put it into the clone's hand whilst pulling the pin. It starts to truly transform into Lena as it burns away, touching the branches inside the lighthouse and crawling back into the hole, the fire spreads in the quickest way and the Shimmer disappears. We return to Lena's interview and rather than wondering what had gone on because the end 10 minutes had made me lose interest, I'm wondering how Wong's character had been standing in the same stance for so long listening to Lena. Wong's character confirms that the Shimmer has gone and Lena has no idea of how she got home. Kane has woken up and as the two are reintroduced, Lena knows that it is not truly him but he asks the same question of her. They both embrace and if you are quick, we see their eyes start to change colour. 

People may perceive this movie in different ways and it may be thought-provoking to some and maybe not for others. The storyline was pretty easy to follow, although on three timelines and the storyline was just that, a story. It felt like there was a metaphor behind it all but what? The ball never really dropped for me if there was one and maybe another slog of a viewing will bring it to the surface but I'd rather just read about it afterward. Alex Garland, the writer and director gave us Ex-Machina which I enjoy, was clever and kept me interested. I'm not going to write the lad off in my books on this movie as there were some other positives. 

I hadn't realised that there was such a horror swerve coming within the movie and to see some cool creatures and unique use of horror kept my hopes alive to the end. The way the movie looked was also pretty impressive, with a steady direction and relative freedom that comes from the genre, the sets and cinematography were pretty striking. 

The cast was pretty synonymous with this type of movie. Each having their role, their qualities and to an extent, they made sense. Portman as a leader by the end made sense as she was ex-army, rather than certain movies were you see these characters step up and kick-arse from absolutely nowhere. The only one for me to not make sense was the paramedic. The aggressive, tie you to a chair and point a gun at you type, usually comes from the army background or at least one of the characters who had been portrayed as a little insane. The paramedic was the calm and rational starter and then suddenly that changed in an instant and it didn't make sense. The roles were all acted out very well though, with the writing at fault, I can't fault the cast. I can't remember a movie that I've seen Natalie Portman lead the line but I enjoyed her in this one. 

It's going to be interesting to see what the freedom of these Netflix exclusive movies are going to give me. I wasn't overly impressed with this one and I'd be lying if I said that it didn't have its moments, I just think that it was let down by what the ending had become. Was it all about rebirth and creating a new you? Someone, please shed some light!