Knowing my history with Netflix movies and how I’ve found the vast majority to be quite disappointing, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel after Bird Box. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed director Susan Bier’s post apocalyptic sci-fi thriller more than I expected to. 

Intrigued by the story of how a woman and two children were going to escape the mysterious force that compels all who see it to kill themselves right away, I couldn’t wait to see how the characters would survive. Especially since they have to be blindfolded when outside.

As soon as the opening scene in Bird Box started to play, I had a good feeling because of how the scene immediately held my undivided attention. Even though en route to the final scenes of Bird Box, there were some very engaging, ‘edge of your seat,’ suspenseful moments, my favourite part of Bird Box is without a doubt the last thirty minutes. For it is the scenes when the key characters are truly most vulnerable, and endless near-disasters are happening one after the other. 

Similar to 2017’s A Quiet Place, Bird Box will likely have you thinking about parenthood and the gargantuan undertaking that it truly is. I enjoyed leading actor Sandra Bullock’s performance, plus the moments in the story that moved, thrilled and surprised me.

As for the parts of Bird Box I wish weren’t quite so, those would include approximately thirty minutes into the film when, instead of being fully engaged, I found myself distracted by the fact that I hadn’t seen the ‘monster’ yet and I really wanted to. Secondly, I think there were too many characters ‘in the house;’ one or two of whom proved quite annoying. There were also others that seemed like props who were just  there to play their relatively small parts just to move the story along and sometimes provide a fast thrilling moment. 

Thirdly, I understand the reason for the ‘flashback and back to present day’ editing choice. However, it hurt the flow of the story and subsequently had me wondering how different it could all have been if everything had played out in regular order.

Overall, I say give Bird Box a chance because it has some great moments, and for me personally, it’s an improvement on the last few Netflix movies I saw, and some I tried to watch but had to abandon.

Happy Film Loving,

G