From producer Michael Bay, Songbird depicts a grim, dystopian near-future where the world enters its fourth consecutive year in lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The recently released trailer shows an almost apocalyptic Los Angeles with residents locked down at home, state-enforced curfews and “quarantine camps” holding the infected. It’s a bleak and depressing depiction of an imagined future where COVID-19 has mutated into a far deadlier disease.
Riverdale‘s KJ Apa plays a young courier who’s immune to the virus. As one of the few people in the city who is allowed outside, he starts a relationship with a young woman (Sofia Carson) through online means. Neither can meet one another due to lockdown restrictions in a world with temperature checks, street blockades and “disinfection squads” which take away the infected.
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Already the trailer has been met with strong criticism online with some saying that the movie trivialises COVID-19, which many people are still being infected and dying from everyday. Others have said that the movie appears to romanticise elements of lockdown, where other parts of the trailer feel like scaremongering with endless lockdowns and oppressive state force.
Unlike 2011’s pandemic movie, Contagion, which has found new relevance this year, Songbird directly refers to COVID instead of a fictional disease. For some this may offer the film a sense of realism and relevance, whilst for others it may be seen as a poorly timed cash-grab by Hollywood. Ironically, it’s still uncertain whether the movie will get a cinematic release due to COVID lockdowns.
Watch the trailer below and decide for yourself!
What do you think of the Songbird trailer? Sound off in the comments below!
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