Bird Box Barcelona Movie Review: Netflix’s ‘Bird Box’ Spinoff Spreads Out On a Thin Plot Without Any Palpable Tension (LatestLY Exclusive)
Bird Box Barcelona Movie Review: Out of all the franchises Netflix has, they chose to make Bird Box into a connected universe. If you enjoyed the original Bird Box, then, for better or worse, Bird Box Barcelona is just more of the same. In this case, I was left wanting more because, like with the first film, while the fundamental ideas are intriguing, the execution leaves much to be desired. Bird Box Barcelona Trailer: Mario Casas Stars in This Goosebumps Inducing Expansion Film of Sandra Bullock’s Famous Post Apocalyptic Thriller (Watch Video).
Directed by the duo of Alex Pastor and David Pastor, Bird Box Barcelona is not a sequel to original, but rather a spinoff that takes us to Barcelona and tries telling a distinct story of its own. This time, we follow Sebastian (Mario Casas), a survivor of the apocalypse traversing around a post-apocalyptic Barcelona with his daughter Anna (Alejandra Howard). Meeting up with a few more survivors, the duo must try to keep themselves alive in a world ravaged by monsters where just making a visual contact with them will have some dire consequences.
A Still From Bird Box Barcelona (Photo Credits: Netflix)
The big issue with the original Bird Box was that it just didn’t land how you would have expected it to. A film where making eye contact with an alien will have you commit suicide – this is an idea bursting with potential and tension that could be slashed with a knife, and while the film did have its moments, it felt like a very safe interpretation of how things might play out. Following in that tradition, Bird Box Barcelona makes the same faults, as well as new ones that left me scratching my head. There is no sense of tension or urgency to the story here.
The story of Sebastian and Anna has a twist to it that I won’t spoil in this review, but it suffers from some huge disparities in concepts that connect like two broken wires patched together with duct tape. The major fault here is that you cannot root for Sebastian at all. Just the first scene portrays him as one of the worst guys you’ll ever meet in the apocalypse, and it left me wondering why I was expected to be bothered. Of course, you could do something interesting with a character who is morally ambiguous, unfortunately Bird Box Barcelona doesn’t know what to do with its central protagonists.
Watch the Trailer for Bird Box Barcelona:
Even though the character is handled poorly, Mario Casas still offers a dependable performance, and in that regard, Alejandra Howard also delivers a fine performance as Anna beside him. Georgina Campbell, who was last seen in Barbarian last year, plays survivor Claire in the film, while Babylon‘s breakout star Diego Calva plays Octavio, with the two giving some of the better performances of the movie. Naila Schuberth plays the role of Sofia, and offers an impressive performance. So it’s equally disappointing when the movie doesn’t know what to do with them since Bird Box Barcelona’s plot is just so stretched out.
In Bird Box Barcelona, there are two timelines: one that takes us to the day zero incident and one that takes place in the present. This actively undermines the film’s momentum because it doesn’t know how to find a balance between flashbacks and conveying its major story, and it just makes for a drab experience because the plot itself lacks any weight. I’m a sucker for stories that go back in time to depict how civilization crumbles in the face of a threat, but Bird Box Barcelona just doesn’t know how to place these sequences. Bird Box Barcelona Teaser Out! Bird Box Spin-Off to Premiere on Netflix on July 14 (Watch Video).
A Still From Bird Box Barcelona (Photo Credits: Netflix)
It gets rather boring at times, and the fault is easily identified. It’s almost like a short film attempting to be a feature because Netflix wants to follow an algorithm that predicts an average length film would be watched by more people. There is no reason for this film to last 110 minutes, and the journey itself is an inconsequential viewing to say the least.
Final Thoughts
Bird Box Barcelona doesn’t offer anything new out of the ordinary. An unnecessarily long story with poorly handled characters, it follows in the shoes of the original film by making the same mistakes and providing a watch whose potential ultimately gets crumbled up due to its own ambition. Bird Box Barcelona is streaming on Netflix right now.
(The above story first appeared on Today News 24 on Jul 14, 2023 07:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website todaynews24.top).
