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.

Funnily enough, I already knew from the beginning that this film couldn't be nearly as good as the first part. I was actually looking forward to it because I found the subject matter from the first part exciting. However, my fears turned out to be true and the film is extremely boring. Somehow it still has a fascination for me, because the seen was excitingly tried to implement, but it is just never exciting. The actors are all ok and completely mediocre, no one stands out from the crowd like Sandra Bullock did. I think it's a pity that they didn't take the chance to create a film on par with the first part. Because of all the boredom and the almost 2 hours running time, I can unfortunately only give the film 3/10 stars. According to my rating scale this means "not worth seeing". Everyone must decide for himself whether he does not prefer to watch something else in these 2 hours 🤷‍♂️.

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.

I was really looking forward to this, and whilst it's an okay thriller, it's got alot to live up to and fails to hit the mark.

The storyline is clever, acting is good, however it feels after watching it that the actual premise of the story is quite weak, and was infact carried by the actors of the first one, in particular Miss Sandra Bullock.

I will admit that it was good to see another scenario outcome of the outbreak, and the city of Barcelona was a good decision, the last 5 minutes of the film kinda made me want another sequal, but all in all an extremely mediocre film that's ridden on the coat tails of its predecessor.