In my experience soundbars are a great way to spend a whole lot of money on not very much performance. Most of the lower end ones are basically TV speakers smacked into a horizontal plastic bar. The people who praise soundbars tend to be individuals who are upgrading from the built-in backwards or downwards firing speakers on their flatscreens. Nearly anything aftermarket is going to be an upgrade from that situation. As others have said, you'll get a lot more performance for your dollar if you buy a receiver and a pair of bookshelves or floor standers and a subwoofer. You will also need a home theater receiver to drive the speakers. This setup will get you much higher sound quality with much more clear voices (important for movies and television). An important thing to consider is that unless you're using HDMI passthrough with a compatible television you will likely have a separate remote for volume control on the receiver if you can't program that function into your cable's remote, or you'll have to get a universal remote. If you aren't a big movie buff and or don't care for strong bass you can skip a sub if you get speakers with large enough drivers. Definitive Technologies has some home theater speakers (https://www.definitivetechnology.com/products/promonitor-1000) that have passive bass radiators on the tops that help enhance their bass. It won't provide deeper bass but it will be stronger. I have a pair of the Promonitor 1000's for my TV and the bass radiators work, however I find that the speakers can sometimes rattle around on their feet a bit during explosions or other bass heavy scenes, so I had to "pin" them down to their stands with some blu-tack.
I think it's important to focus on voice clarity when choosing a pair of speakers for home theater. You're going to have regrets if you're stuck straining to understand conversations easily. I would definitely avoid going for speakers that aren't intended for home theater (speakers meant primarily for music in a stereo setup) as they won't usually be as clear for vocals. Try going to a Best Buy with a Magnolia in it and listening to dialogue in a movie on the various speakers. The Martin Logan Motion 4's (https://www.amazon.com/MartinLogan-Motion-Bookshelf-Speaker-Piano/dp/B0035FZ124) have some of the most clear dialogue I've heard in their price range, but they desperately need to be paired with a sub. A final thing to consider is that if you get bookshelf speakers you're either going to need to be able to fit them on your TV stand or you'll need to buy them some speaker stands, or wall mount them. The simplest solution here is to buy floor standing speakers with decent size woofers, eliminating the need to buy speaker stands and a subwoofer if you so choose.