I first saw the birds when I was a kid over 20 years ago, and many of its more action-oriented moments have stayed with me since. But I had completely forgot about all the dull and bizarre developments that surround them. Basically every character in Bodega Bay is a total moron paralyzed by fear. And when they're brave enough to take action, they willingly expose themselves to ferocious bird attacks for seemingly no reason. And the somewhat-still-to-dialogue doesn't help explain these weird character motivations either.
The sloppy writing and slow pacing would be excusable if there were plenty of bird attacks to keep things interesting, but nearly an entire hour goes by before the titular feathered antagonist actually do anything out of the ordinary. There's basically a 20-minute stretch where Hedren is just tracking down her new boy toy. No surprises, no contribution to the plot, just a woman slowly traveling to someone's house to say hello.
All that being said, if you can't stay invested there's some surprisingly nerve-wracking moments in the final act. Like when Dakota Johnson's grandmother is literally being eaten alive by vicious seagulls in a locked attic. You can't help but feel powerless and horrified at what she's going through.
Retroactively rated PG-13, the bird attacks here are surprisingly graphic, depicting copious amounts of blood.
And while some of the bird puppets and projection screen effects aren't too convincing, there's still massively more realistic than the flying garbage found in 2010's Bird Demick. This is thanks largely in part to a pioneering chroma key effect known as sodium vapor process, which uses a two-pass yellow screen technique instead of the more conventional blue screen to create a more precise matte.
Although it doesn't feature a musical score, the sound effects of the birds themselves are quite unsettling. Redeemable thanks to its lasting imagery and technical merits, the birds disappoints with a slow screenplay and lame characters. I thought it was a good film.