What Is the Story About?
Bird Box Barcelona is Netflix’s Spanish language spinoff of its blockbuster 2018 Sandra Bullock starrer, ‘Bird Box’. The events in the film take place nine months after the devastation wrath by supernatural creatures in the original film. The core premise is the same – anyone who sets eyes upon the creatures goes berserk and takes their own life in gruesome fashion.
Sebastián (Mario Casas) navigates the perilously deserted streets of Barcelona with his daughter Anna (Alejandra Howard), and a bunch of other survivors, led by British psychiatrist Claire (Georgina Campbell), Octavia (Diego Calva), a little girl Sofia (Naila Schuberth), an elderly couple, among others. Sebastián must overcome his own demons, to help steer the motley group to a safer place – an ancient castle atop a mountain.
Bird Box Barcelona is written and directed by siblings David and Àlex Pastor.
Performances?
None of the characters in Bird Box Barcelona is memorable enough to write about. In the midst of largely forgettable performances, Mario Casas and Georgina Campbell’s are still among the better ones. The rest of the performances are passable.
Analysis
Bird Box Barcelona starts off on a very confusing note. The world is in a post-apocalyptic state. The stench of death and destruction is in the air; with gruesome dead bodies in every nook and corner of the city. It’s been nine months since the supernatural — or alien? — creatures made their appearance on Earth, bringing with them the power to make humans take their own lives the instant they see the creatures with their bare eyes. Blindfolds are their best bet to safeguard themselves from the terrifying beings.
Interestingly, a small category of humans are able to see the creatures — and live to tell the tale. In Bird Box Barcelona, this privileged bunch of people turn their superhuman ability into a horrifying cult, and lead their unsuspecting fellow humans to their grisly suicides. If you think about it, more than the supernatural creatures, it is humans that are the real monsters in Bird Box Barcelona.
The confusion in the plot stems from the ambiguity of the primary protagonist in the film, Sebastián (Mario Casas). Is he a good guy or a bad guy? A sheep or a wolf? Why is his daughter so weird, and what is her agenda with him? Viewers spend almost the whole of the first half of the film in total confusion regarding the plot and characterisations in Bird Box Barcelona.
As the narrative delves deeper into Sebastián’s past, the truth of his reality starts to dawn upon us. But by then, we are so bored by the monotony of the proceedings that we’re simply not interested in knowing the whys of Sebastián’s strange doings.
The film has none of the shock value of the debut movie. Nor does it have the advantage of a taut plot or tense narrative. After the first few sequences of the film, one loses even the tiny semblance of interest that the spinoff holds for those who’ve watched, and maybe liked, Bird Box. For those who haven’t watched Bird Box, we must say that this spinoff is a sorry introduction to the post-apocalyptic world created by Sandra Bullock’s hit film.
There’s no thrill or edge-of-the-seat suspense in the plot. The characters are so poorly etched out that you don’t feel a thing for them even when they thrust their head into the nearest window or set themselves on fire or stab themselves – multiple times – to death. The suicides get so tedious by the end of the film that you just wish for it to get over and done with quickly.
The villain in the film — no, it’s not the ‘creatures’ — is laughably silly and caricaturish. Sebastián’s daughter is quite irritating too. Bird Box Barcelona tries to address higher concepts such as the trauma wrought on the human body by grief and death, trauma that is capable of altering even the DNA of the person aggrieved. However, the telling of it is so uninspiring and unimpactful that it fails to have the desired effect on the viewer.
Only one scene in the entire runtime of Bird Box Barcelona is truly moving or affecting. It has to do with Anna, is all we can say, for fear of giving away spoilers. The rest of the film is just meh. To sum it up, Bird Box Barcelona is a poor spinoff of the original film and quite avoidable. Watch it if you must, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Music and Other Departments?
Zeltia Montes’ background music for the film is average – nothing too outstanding or memorable about it. Daniel Aranyó’s cinematography is perhaps the only good thing about the film. It sets the right ambience – bleak and baleful. Luis de la Madrid and Martí Roca’s editing is crisp and competent.
Highlights?
None
Drawbacks?
Unimpressive characters
Unimpactful writing
Tedious and monotonous plot
Did I Enjoy It?
No
Will You Recommend It?
No
Bird Box Barcelona Movie Review by Binged Bureau
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