Create a spline IK bone chain, orient then parent the boxes to the bones. This'll give you a neat spine rig with a twist controller. If this means nothing to you I can do a quick vid to describe it
1) You can apply a "SplineIK Control" modifier to place boxes at each vert of the spline without having to set up a whole spline IK rig. Even if the verts of the spline are in the right places, this introduces another problem. 2) The boxes are aligned to the world not the spline.