Phénix

2 out of 5 stars.

Songbird is a sci fi thriller based on the real world covid epidemic. Taking place in 2023 with covid 23 mutated into a lethal virus that is more airborne than ever. And the cities are on a strict lockdown with military authorized to shoot if caught outside your home. Nico (K.J. Apa) is a bike courier. Who delivers packages. When his girlfriend Sara (Sofia Carson) who is quarantined in there apartment may be infected. A sanitization crew is called in to sweep and take her to an infected zone. Nice who is immune. He is willing to do whatever it takes to save her.

The plot does leave a lot of holes open. It has characters who are selling immunity bracelets. A young woman who invites man to her hotel room for sex while trying to keep there face masks on. A veteran who uses his drone to check the city. All these characters are uninteresting. The script is terrible in executing in making these characters stand out.

The direction is terrible. The cinematography is all over the place with weird camera angles and quick and shaky cuts. The story goes completely nowhere in the end.

The cast is great. K.J. Apa. Sofia Carson. Demi Moore. Alexandria Daddario. And Peter Stormare were all completely wasted playing characters that are forgettable. The script did not give them anything to work with besides giving them tedious characters.

The movie lacked thrills when it tries to be. But showing Nico riding his motorcycle all over Los Angeles from one warehouse to another. Which lacks the excitement.

Songbird is definitely one of those films that is best to skip to a streaming service or skip it all together. It was just terrible.

When this was announced it had Michael Bay's name attached as producer and was supposedly going to be a pandemic thriller. Now I know many people have a disdain for Michael Bay, but I actually think that he brings some visual prowess to his projects however it's clear that his name was only attached for recognition purposes. This is neither anything visually bombastic or anything close to being a pulse pounding thriller. It's a very amateur romantic drama that focuses more on the interpersonal communication between characters as they struggle through the changing times. It becomes increasingly dragging and you just keep asking yourself what the real intent of the overall film really is. Some of the actors are seasoned veterans but are truly underutilized for new or younger actors that are frankly not on par. The production value is that of a cancelled TV series on the big networks as well. Overall this is just a very big failure and definitely not what I was expecting.

Initial Thoughts: Minus the whole zombie apocalypse aspect. I thought this film would be much more similar to the outbreak, and subsequent emptiness that was found in "I Am Legend". Anyways....

While the trailer hinted at a decent story. I was filled with skepticism going into this film. Based off both the trailer, and the description, this film falls way short of its intent. While classified as a comedy, drama, and romance, I felt very little to no emotion within each of those categories. Nothing stood out as funny. There was very little drama to be had. Hearing there were "Q-zones", and people trying to fight back, I assumed there would be riots and intense action to show how tired people were for being oppressed and contained of the virus. There was none of that. Lastly, the romance was sub-par. There was no spark, no emotion that made me feel the leads were truly in love, or had any connection that would've brought them together. The most engaging sub-story was the one with a military veteran trying to help an internet personality escape her oppressor, and I felt that story was stronger than the main one.

Overall: The film was slow, emotionless, and a waste of time. Honestly, wait for it to come out on a streaming service. No amount of screen or sound is going to make the film any better than it already isn't.

Enjoy the show!

It's a love story in times of quarantine, with little to no action, a couple that in all their three conversations on camera was about "the safety of their daughter", an don Juan trying to make more money but his actions does the opposite of doing the job, an annoying Demi Moore in a character with a weird sense of morality and, again, a good performance of Peter Stormare. If the movie tried to send a message, it just went past me.

There was some potential here, and if anything, it should have allowed viewers to perfectly relate to what the characters in this movie are going through. Sadly, this movie largely falls flat.

With the Covid pandemic as its backdrop, and a dystopian near future as its setting, 'Songbird' had all the ingredients for at least a solid thriller. The movie has trouble finding its own identity however, following several different plotlines, none of which are thoroughly worked out.

The two main romantic leads, played by KJ Apa and Sofia Carson, get the majority of the screen time, and their arc is the one that's arguably best worked out. However, their story feels bland, and very derivative of a load of other doomed romance stories. The two bad guys, Peter Stormare and Bradley Whitford, are uninspired and boring, with neither getting to do anything particularly memorable. Add some other one-off characters played by Demi Moore, Craig Robinson and Alexandra Daddario, and you have a reasonably talented cast who are not given that much to work with.

The movie's plot furthermore would have allowed the filmmaker to add some biting social critiques and maybe even some satire, but this is nowhere to be seen. The movie is a basic romance on one end, and a bland action thriller on the other. Really, aside from being a quarantine movie coming out during a quarantine, there isn't that much special about this movie.

Furthermore, I have to mention my dislike of the movie's camerawork and editing. The shaky-cam aesthetic and rapid editing can work very well for certain movies, but it feels totally superfluous and unnecessary here.

Overall, the actors' performances were solid enough, but the story and execution lacked in quality.