Bird Box: Barcelona

Never saw the first one before seeing this so I have nothing to compare it to. Unless you count about 100 other similar movies and TV shows. This is a mixture of "see", "A Quiet Place" and a few others. Not very original, which is the first issue with the movie.

The other issues are some of the characters which are not sold so well, acting need some work. The CGi/FX is not good, and I think the music score could have been a lot better to sell several scenes. I also think this is not creepy enough i.e. The directing is not on point.

With those negatives out of the way this is still a decent watch. The Spanish is fairly easy to understand and they speak English in many scenes so language is not an issue. Not that this movie really need you to understand everything language-wise but just so you know. The storyline is interesting enough, and the pacing is great. I think this can get a cult following and I would not be surprised if they do a few more of these, set in other locations.

I give this a generous 6/10, and I think the movie is worth your time, But don't expect anything great.

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.

Not sure what I watched or why.

1. There is no one to root for. It is hard to have a movie where there is no one to care about or root for. It removes all the stakes. There is no true protagnoist and you spend the movie watching random characters appear on screen then die.

2. The 'twist' does not help the movie but starts it down the frustrating path.

3. Stupidity. All you need to to to survive is close your eyes, that simple. You could VERY EASILY open your eyes for a split second to see where you are going and close them again. Just because you open your eyes does not mean you have to keep them open, looking around, and do not react when the 'creature' is near. These are experienced survivors yet they are making first day mistakes for no reason at all outside of this being a bad movie.

4. The acting is surprisingly good.

5. The storyline/plot is stupid, not really explained ,with story being borderline criminal.

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.

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.