Bird Box: Barcelona

The first movie was insultingly stupid filler, made watchable by Sandy Bullock. But Georgina Campbell is in this one and I thought she might bring something fresh to the screen. I was wrong. It's a basic retread, with all the same logical brain-hurts of the first movie, only brain-hurtier.

Mario Casas, a good actor, plays a boring man who is boring. He is escorting a kid through the post-apocalyptic streetssjc#'gch... sorry, I got bored of typing. You know the plot. It's Plot Number 1 from the Big Book of Plots - a bunch of generic humans stumble through derivative scenes until one of them gets yeeted in a flourish of Adobe After Effects plugins.

Do not expect suspense or horror. The director does not know what these things are. The sci-fi elements are completely ignored, so if you've seen the first one, there's nothing new here.

The score is shockingly bad, ever-present and thematically stagnant throughout the entire runtime. The dual-language Spanish setting could have worked well, but they do absolutely nothing with it.

The whole thing reeks of tax breaks. Somewhere, in a Netflix boardroom, people with expensive habits are very pleased with themselves.

The production and acting are not that bad, that's the good news, the bad: the story unfolding is a total bore besides some action sequences here and there, which are okay but nothing remarkable. Somewhat the whole affair reminds me of a mediocre episode of The Walking Dead, one of those last few seasons. In short: Bird Box: Barcelona is no match for the original starring Sandra Bullock, which is a very suspenseful movie with some strong emotional scenes. But this one is simply one of those fast produced mass products that will be forgotten fast and fall (rightfully) into the void of all those trash movies produced for streaming services these days. A legit sequel to the original one? No. Just a cash grabber aiming at the Spanish speaking audience. Final verdict: solid produced boredom.

Overall, it's well acted, but Birdbox: Barcelona is lacking the spark to make it interesting. There are a few highlights, but the majority is rather plodding and lacks the tension that should keep the audience engaged. The sets are well put together and Barcelona is convincingly transformed into a post-apocalyptic shadow of itself. The lack of plot elements to keep the pace results in this being more Boredbox than Birdbox, just a shadow of the gripping original.

Such a shame. I enjoyed the original Birdbox and loved the idea of seeing it played out from another angle, in a city I know so well.

The problem with this movie is that it shouldn't be a movie. If this was a show with a proper start (like the first movie), an interesting twist with character development (like the 2nd movie) and a finale (a potential 3rd movie) it would've been a straightup banger. But because it's not a complete story, leaves too much story out and has no proper direction to go in other than the characters in both movies sharing the same goal of reaching a safe location.

Things they could've done to make it better:

• Made a 12 episode show out of it instead with a start and ending;
• More interesting character progression;
• More backstory;
• More interesting villain(s).

What I liked about the movie:

• Concept is good;
• Lots of suspension;
• Great locations;
• Good videography.

I feel like it had a lot of potential and hype but didn't deliver since both movies were extremely mediocre in the end.

So while this film isn't quite as good as the first, its not a bad follow up from Spain to the 2018 original US film by any stretch.

There are some instances of bad CGI and the story progression to the overall universe was quite minimal and these two factors certainly explain some of the lower reviews by critics and viewers alike, but overall I'd award this film a solid 65.

It does drag on a little and the conclusion was a bit predictable but overall I was satisfied by how they deepened the lore and story with the additions they made. I won't get into spoiler territory here but I liked how they told another story which coincided with the events from the first film and told from another part of the world. I'll certainly be in the circle of people interested to see what the next addition to this franchise will be - I think there's a solid cult classic in the making here.

65/100, would recommend.