Bird Box Review: 4 Ups & 4 Downs

1. The Pacing Is A Mess

Even forgiving the film's clear structural issues, it too often feels like a slog despite clocking in at a fairly reasonable 124 minutes.

Some stretches of the movie feel breakneck almost to the point of being rushed - especially the opening onset of the "plague" - while others, especially later on, are almost glacial in their lack of momentum.

Clearly re-ordering scenes would've helped to an extent, but also Bier could've done everyone a favour simply by cutting some of the long, drawn-out scenes of laboured exposition and keeping to a more subtle, restrained tack.

More than anything, this feels like a movie which was sorely in need of one more pass in the edit before released to audiences, because it feels far longer than its two-ish hours by the time it's all over.

So, Bird Box is far from the masterful thriller many were hoping for, but it's certainly still watchable and often pretty enjoyable. Here's everything that makes it worthwhile...