I had an entire evening off, so I settled down to catch up on some paperwork and put the TV on for some background noise.

When I saw Bird Box on Netflix, I remembered that I had wanted to see it, when it came out. So I put it on.

To say that this movie is "gripping" would be an understatement. I ended up ditching my paperwork, I was so engrossed.

The movie is excellent for the most part. Well written. Brillilant acting (across the board) and edge of the seat stuff, with no gratuitous sex or violence in sight.

However....

I have two big problems with it.

1 - It is beyond a cliche at this point to make the "bad guy" British. We get it already. 70 Million Americans already demonstrated that they think an orange lunatic who can't string a sentence together properly is some sort of demigod, so anyone that can speak without sounding like trailer trash is inevitably going to be evil. But Hollywood is supposed to be doing better at dealing with stereotypes and is - instead - continually reinforcing them.

2 - The antagonists in the movie are only ever "seen" through the insane scribblings of one of their victims. The movie ends without telling us anything about the monsters, except that they kill people. It was a very unsatisfying ending and - frankly - smacked of laziness. Intrigue is not the net result of failing to tell an audience ANYTHING about the main plot device, disappointment is.

Given the quality of the movie, had it given us more about the motives, origin and intentions of the creatures, it would be a 10 across the board. But this failing actually almost completely ruined the movie altogether.

Would I watch it again? No. I'd feel that my time had been wasted.

Would I recommend it? Not to anyone intelligent. They'd likely feel that their time had been wasted, too.