If you’ve been patiently waiting to see what could very well be the most tone deaf movie of 2020, then you’re in luck, because Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes production company are releasing the ill-conceived and very poorly timed Songbird this weekend to stake out a claim as the most tasteless spin on the current global health crisis since Corona Zombies arrived at the beginning of the pandemic in March.
Of course, as a filmmaker, Bay has never been known for things like restraint or subtlety. So it makes complete sense that he oversaw a project shot in the middle of our current situation and uses it as the basis for a low budget genre effort.
For those unfamiliar, Songbird is set in 2024, where COVID-19 has mutated into COVID-23 and the pandemic is in its fourth year. Infected people are shoved into concentration camps for the sick, where they either recover or die. KJ Apa plays a motorcycle courier with immunity who falls hopelessly in love with a girl who’s forbidden from having physical contact with anyone, and they break every single rule and restriction in the handbook after she becomes infected and he makes it his mission to save her life.
Amazon recently canceled Utopia after one season, and the story’s reliance on a deadly virus is said to be one of the main reasons why nobody seemed interested in checking it out. As such, Songbird likely faces a similar fate.
People living through COVID-19 don’t want to watch movies about folks dying in huge numbers during a pandemic based on the one they’re currently experiencing, but if you’re feeling brave enough, then Songbird is available on all major VOD platforms including Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, Vudu and Google Play from Friday.