Is Michael Bay’s Songbird (2021) tone deaf?
The answer is most likely, yes.
If you are yet to hear Michael Bay started developing a ‘pandemic’ movie back in May 2020, a very quick and somewhat unnecessary response to the ongoing world crisis. Bay has recently released the trailer for Songbird, his upcoming 2021 movie staring KJ Apa and Sofia Carson. Based in 2024 this movie shows us a world where COVID-19 has mutated into COVID-23, which I suspect is a much deadlier virus that has wiped out a mass amount of the population. This already tone deaf concept has outdone itself by merging into a much needed love story, can you feel my sarcasm screaming through the screen? Basically KJ Apa’s character Nico races against time to save the woman he loves from a quarantine camp.
I personally think Michael Bay is his trying to create his own Titanic (1997), this movie screams for attention whether that be negative or positive. Creating romance out of utter tragedy is hard to accept but when it is created several decades later it is somewhat easier to separate the project from the history. Bay’s movie is suspected to be released next year when our world is most definitely going to be overcoming the pandemic or still living through the pandemic. Basically, this film is being released into a world in which the narrative is real life and this could seriously effect audiences. I can already imagine my own hysteria and worry after watching let alone the world. In my opinion Bay is desperately trying to cause controversy by making and releasing this movie to the public. I find the subject matter to be incredibly insensitive, naive and most of all damaging to audiences. During this time in our lives we should be supporting one another, not scaring each other! I feel almost offended that Michael Bay thinks we need to see a movie like this, we do not need films to depict our worst nightmares, we need films to help us escape from our currently reality.
I believe this film to be terrifying to comprehend, after watching the trailer I feel uncomfortable and flat. I watch movies to escape, I watch movies to feel joy and Songbird (2021) appears to be a movie that is going to make me scared and not horror movie scared, real life petrified. Maybe I’m being dramatic but as a young person with mental health struggles, like a large percentage in this world I truly feel as though this film could effect audiences mentally. In saying all of this maybe Songbird (2021) will be nothing like what I’ve mentioned above (I seriously doubt that), so I will try to stay optimistic. Ok, I can’t stay optimist… the concept of this film, despite the time of its release or content matter doesn’t thrill me, it is literally the copy and pasted narrative of several romantic movies. If you are going to make such a controversial statement at least write a gripping, compelling narrative. Also, the weak casting choices makes me think I won’t be missing much if I skip this movie, which I probably will be.
In a nut shell, if you couldn’t tell I find this movie to be an exportation of our currently world crisis, I think it is incredibly insensitive and insulting to those who are trying desperately to stay positive and help our planet come back to normal. I do not stand for movies that exploit their audiences and I feel as though this movie is exploiting our current position to raise a few eyebrows and gain some controversy… which ironically I am giving into right now but I just can’t help myself! This movie is ridiculous and I hope I’m right about it.
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