Songbird - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Songbird



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras: :
Final Score:


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Movie
Ahhhhh, Songbird, the movie that everyone and their mother saw the trailer for last year and said “who thought this was a good idea?”. Songbird is a film that just REEKS of exploitation and that troll nature of saying “see! I’m first to say something!” on a social media site. The film was conceptualized, funded, cast, shot, edited, AND RELEASED since March of 2020. Yes, very few Hollywood films can say that they were started from beginning to end in 9 months without being done from Cannon Films. I saw the trailer for this over 7 months ago and the first thought that went through my head was “well, if this isn’t grooming us for paranoid lockdowns I don’t know what is”. The reality of the situation is that Adam Mason’s (and Michael Bay as producer) love story/thriller feels less like a legitimate attempt at making a movie, and more of an attempt at being the first pandemic movie made DURING a pandemic! There’s a B-level thriller under all the trappings and ridiculous settings, but it’s a ginormous mess of a film that stinks to high heaven, even though an N-95 mask.

The story is pretty ridiculous, and the movie was highly politicized by people of the left and the right when it hit theaters in December. The right viewed it as a flick that’s pre-emptively grooming society for lock downs and getting used to government control, while left leaning viewers looked at is as a paranoid fantasy from the evil maskless Republicans. The truth is somewhere in the middle, as it’s less political than either side wanted to admit, but so bad in it’s tone deaf nature that it doesn’t really matter. It’s just BAD across the board.

The year is 2024 and we’re in our 4th year of continuous lock downs. Covid-19 has mutated into Covid-23, a disease that kills nearly 50% of whomever it infects, and is still wildly out of control. 110 million people have died from the disease, and the U.S. (and most likely the world) is under martial law. Everyone stays inside and lives in fear of contracting the airborne illness (I could bring up a whole host of plot holes from that alone, as we’ve since discovered that people who stay inside get the virus too these days), while a small subsection of humanity that has a natural immunity are used as couriers so that people can get goods and services.

Nico (K.J. Apa) is one of those “munies” (as they’re derogatorily called by the jealous people who are envious of their ability to walk around normally without fear of infection) and he’s living his life the best he can. His girlfriend Sara (Sofia Carson) is about the only source of enjoyment he gets, as he can talk to her through their door without coming in close contact (everyone’s worried about asymptomatic spreaders) in between getting yelled at by his boss Lester (Craig Robinson). However, his world gets turned upside when Sara’s Abuelita gets sick from the disease and is whisked off to the infamous “Q Zones” (Quarantine zones where people are left to die) with Sara being considered at risk too. Running against time and everyone around him, Nico runs to a rich couple who are selling black market immunity bracelets (Played by Demi Moore and Bradley Whitford) to get one so that he can keep Sara out of the Q-zone.

The movie is absolutely RIDICULOUS and the slap dash nature of the film just screams that it was conceptualized, made, and hit theaters in 9 short months in order to capitalize on the pandemic that we’re in now. The movie itself is very non political (much to the chagrin of many people), but it amazingly managed to turn off both left, right and even center leaning people in just how tone deaf and BAD the movie is. There’s so many plot holes that arise out of nowhere, and the pandering to lock down fear comes across as exploitative rather than scary or relatable. The fact that this is supposed to be a love story about a guy going to see his girlfriend in a pandemic that kills 50% of people it infects, and getting her fake immunity bracelet without knowing if she IS immune (spoiler, she is unknowingly immune so as to assuage plot fears) comes across as stupidly irresponsible, and the bland and derivative shoot outs, chases, and general governmental over reach (which is pretty much expected no matter what side of the political fence you’re on) just feels sleazy. All politics and grumblings about tone deafness aside, the movie is badly done. Adam Mason (who co-wrote the film with Simon Boyes) can’t keep the movie interesting, and Michael Bay’s fingers are ALL over the flick with it’s low light and high light shifts, camera angles, and juttery editing that feels like you almost expect a decepticon to come over the horizon any minute keeping everything as mind numbing as possible.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for violence including some bloody images, sexual material, partial nudity and some strong language




Video:

Video is a solid release by universal, but it’s a very desaturated and muted look that thrives off of being gritty and grungy looking. Using RED cameras, the film has been given a layer of artificial grain and noise to give it that gritty look, and colors are mostly washed out and brightness blasted in daylight sequences, and given slightly murky blacks in darker shots. Fine details are generally good, with some scenes showing incredible nuance in clothing, facial pores, and glossy colors (such as when Nico is in his home building his motorcycle). Others look a bit hazy and bland. It’s not a bad encode by any stretch of the imagination, but it is stylized pretty heavily and isn’t 100% perfect.






Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio track is just like the video. Very good, but not a perfect mix. The film starts out with a nice pulsation in the bass end of things, and expands out to a very nice sound stage as the movie progresses. The score dominates many of the scenes, with dialog being the primary focus and the surrounds having to live with said score as the “filling out” of the mix. However, the second half of the film when things go south is much more active and exciting. Gunshots by the authorities ring with clarity, and the roaring and thundering sound of military vehicles chasing down Nico makes for some great channel separation. The mix isn’t OVERLY aggressive though, and sometimes the surrounds suffer a bit due to the talkative nature of most of the film. Basically, very good, but is a bit limited.






Extras:

• Audio Commentary by Director/Co-Writer Adam Mason and Co-Writer Simon Boyes
• Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Director/Co-Writer Adam Mason
• The Story of Songbird
• "Kingdom" Promo Video
• The Making of "Kingdom"

Final Score: ​

Songbird isn’t tone deaf in the sense that it makes a movie about a sensitive subject as some have theorized, but rather it’s tone deaf in how it implements said plot material and feels like a gimmick of “me first, me first!” rather than an attempt at making a real MOVIE. The 86 minute film is overly long as it is, and everything about it screams that a board room full of suits thought that getting the first movie about Covid-19 out in theaters would garner the best results. It’s slap dash, cheesy, disjointed, and outside of Peter Stormare hamming it up like he always does (he was hilariously fun in his role), the movie was blander than grandma’s oatmeal with raisins. The audio and video are solid enough, but minimal extras and the awful nature of the film gives this a solid pass from me.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: K.J. Apa, Sofia Carson, Craig Robinson, Peter Stormare, Demi Moore, Bradley Whitford, Alexandra Daddario
Directed by: Adam Mason
Written by: Adam Mason, Simon Boyes
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DVS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Universal
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 86 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: March 23rd 2021

Recommendation: Skip It.

 

[Epoxy1]

I'm SOOOO glad I didn't request this one

 

[Michael Scott]

I'm SOOOO glad I didn't request this one

yeah, it was a dodged bullet for sure.