Bird Box Barcelona: deja vu (review)
This fake sequel in Europe replays exactly the same sequences as the surprise hit from 2018, but in Catalonia. With the same strengths, and the same faults.
Long before Squid Gamethere have been bird box ! In 2018, the blindfolded angst film caused a stir on Netflix. Without a big promotion, but by a dantesque word of mouth between subscribers, this terrifying science fiction story carried by Sandra Bullock imposed itself as the biggest success of the platform (even today in the Top 3). So inevitably, a sequel was due. And it now takes the form of a spin-off in Spain. Bird Box Barcelona is not quite Bird Box 2. It is rather a Bird Box bis. Understand the same story, which takes place in Catalonia, at the same time, with other characters, but the same issues, the same challenges, the same moral dilemmas and, overall, the same ending!
This time we follow Sebastian, who wanders in a Barcelona ravaged for a year by the Apocalypse. After these deadly creatures arrive on Earth, causing instant suicidal thoughts in anyone who dares to look at them, the few survivors who have known how to hide and adapt are hunted down by mind-corrupted humans who will do anything to force their fellow human beings to watch…
Alex and David Pastor recycle bird box, the pop-cultural object, with a lot of mastery. The tension is there and the two Iberian directors knew how to stage some sequences of hypnotizing anguish, which have nothing to envy to the first opus. They mostly focused on religion. Are these creatures from elsewhere Angels sent to Earth to liberate Men? Is their divine beauty so overwhelming that one doesn’t feel worth living after seeing them? This theory has been widely shared on the networks to explain bird box in 2018. Because Susanne Bier’s film – adapted from Josh Malerman’s book – deliberately did not provide any exact answer to the phenomenon decimating Humanity. Bird Box Barcelona takes it up again and puts the emphasis on the biblical aspect of the end times, thus spending 2 hours teasing a great explanation – even scientific at times – which never happens in the end… Obviously! bird box only works because you never see what you shouldn’t see. And the version Barcelona suddenly ends up getting lost by taunting us.
Especially since the rest of the plot does not add much more. Barcelona is content to replay almost sequence by sequence the script of the first bird box, from the shock following the first days of the drama to the need to adapt in order to survive, to the search for an Eldorado that is not easy to reach blindfolded, chased by a gang of possessed maniacs. We’ve seen that before somewhere…
Bird Box Barcelona, directed by Alex and David Pastor, on Netflix since July 17, 2023.
