Happy New Year everyone, and welcome back to Netflix Dumpster Dive. It’s been a good year for us here, and I’m hoping next year will be even better.

I decided that I wanted to pick something safe to kick off 2019, something that most people have seen, but maybe I could push others still on the fence toward. That led me to watching Bird Box. I know, for many it may seem like I’m late to the party, but I’ve seen plenty of people who aren’t sure when or if they’ll be watching the movie. So, on that note, let’s get into it.

I went into Bird Box without too much prior knowledge. I obviously knew about the blindfold situation, but other than that, I was blind myself. Everything was very tense because of this. Every possible danger was pulling that line tighter, and I was waiting on the edge of my seat for it to snap the whole two hours. The monsters of this movie are terrifying, and we don’t even know what they really are.

There’s always been a soft spot in my heart for out-of-order storytelling. Because of how the movie tells us the then and now sides of its plot, we’re getting tension on two very real-feeling fronts. It was easy to get sucked into the flashbacks and then remember that there’s another movie entirely happening when the scene changes. Sometimes flashbacks of this kind are frowned upon, but Bird Box handles them in a surprisingly enthralling way.

What the flashbacks provide, on top of the aspect of fleshing out the story, is a cast of shockingly compelling characters. While right off the bat we know most of these people won’t be sticking around, we still get a lot of faces to lighten up the movie, as the character we follow the whole way is pretty consistently hard to like. That isn’t to say she’s a bad character. Actually, I think she’s a great character and her being hard for me to connect with until late in the movie is most likely intentional and well done on the part of the filmmakers.

I can honestly say I don’t have any huge complaints about Bird Box. The runtime feels a little long, but other than that, I enjoyed this movie thoroughly. There’s a lot of spoiler-territory ideas I could get into as to why I find this movie so great, but honestly, it’s better to watch the movie on your own to understand it.

Some may shy away from Bird Box because of it being considered a horror movie in some circles, but truthfully, this is a thriller. It’s tense and, in the moment, may seem scary, but it’s more about that sweet suspense than it is about the scares. If you want excitement, don’t avoid Bird Box based on the horror label. This is a movie just about anyone can enjoy. I highly, highly recommend it.

Overall Personal Rating: 8.5/10

 

Thank you for reading! If you want to be notified of when the next Netflix Dumpster Dive comes out, feel free to follow the site, and you can also follow me on Twitter. I published my new fantasy book in July, and it’d mean the world if you’d check it out, and if it’s not your cup of tea, share it with someone who might like it. Thanks again, and I hope to see you here next time.

-Vincent

 

© 2018 Vincent C. Russo. All Rights Reserved. This post is intended for review and constitutes fair use. These films and any images used belong to their respective owners.