The Trailer For Michael Bay's COVID-Inspired Movie Songbird Has Everyone Talking

Everyone knew COVID-19 and the restrictions surrounding the viral pandemic would eventually lead to some interesting films down the line, and it seems like that's the case with Michael Bay's new COVID-inspired flick, Songbird. The trailer for the film, which dropped on October 29, makes Songbird look like a mix between a dark, dystopian thriller and a love story. 

The film takes place in 2023, at a time when the COVID virus has so heavily wracked the world that citizens in the US are contained in forced lockdown or taken to COVID camps. The streets have the same eerily bare feel to them in the trailer as they did when quarantine first began in the United States, but in Songbird's fictional universe, the roads are patrolled and barricaded by military personnel. COVID has led to the enacting of martial law as lockdown reaches 213 weeks.

In Songbird, the virus has mutated, going from COVID-19 to COVID-23 by the time the film takes place, and now affects human brain tissue. Doors are kept shut and locked to prevent people from spreading the virus that has killed over 8 million people in a single year, and smartphones are used for daily thermal scans. These scans aren't for your own benefit, but rather to let the government's Department of Sanitation know who might be infected so guys in yellow hazmat suits can bust down your door and drag you off to a COVID camp.

In the middle of this is a sort of "Romeo and Juliet" story, according to an Entertainment Weekly interview with the co-writer and director of the film Adam Mason. Separated by a door, the seemingly immune (or so he claims) Nico, played by Riverdale's K.J. Apa, can only see the face of his love interest, the locked-down Sara (Sofia Carson), via video chat — that is, until her neighbor comes down with the virus, and she's forced to leave home and run.

Some fans aren't exactly excited about Songbird's theme, feeling that a film that uses the world's current pandemic as its core is insensitive. 

Twitter user @blakes993, while replying to @Songbird, shares a meme summing up their feelings. "I don't have a reaction image to fully summarize my disgust, but Jesus Christ, dude," the meme says.

"The making of this movie right now is ridiculously tone deaf," says @quinzelalderson. The phrase "tone-deaf" is then used repeatedly in the comments and forms an overarching theme on social media, even amongst those who think the film would be a neat idea under different circumstances.

Other fans are taking things a step further by claiming the film is attempting to capitalize on the pain this pandemic has inflicted. As @Darknightmare93 says, "This feels wrong. I can't articulate how I feel honestly but if feels like they are trying to benefit financially from the hell that is the pandemic. Having lost family members (yes unfortunately plural) to covid I only hope there is humanity and hope found in the film."

The sentiment over at Reddit isn't much different, and follows the same two themes: Insensitivity and cash-grabbing. "Did they checked on Michael Bay ? A lack of taste is usually one of the Covid symptoms," comments u/iMacBurger.

"I'm not usually overly sensitive but this seems like a really cheap cash grab type move," u/Benson7_ says. "I don't particularly think it's offensive, although some may well do, I just see it as being pretty grubby. Especially seeing as the situation is still going on right now, so it's still incredibly raw."