BIRD BOX: BARCELONA - Mark Reviews Movies

Bird Box: Barcelona, Netflix

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 13, 2023

Set at the start and within the first year of the end-of-the-world scenario established by Bird Box, this companion movie seems as if it's going to be following a familiar path. Shortly into the start of Bird Box: Barcelona, though, something shifts that puts the entire story into a different context. Inevitably, fraternal co-writers/co-directors David and Àlex Pastor force this material back to that recognizable course, and that's a shame. There's something rather daring going on here up until then.

Unfortunately, this review is unnecessarily hindered by an agreement not to reveal certain "spoilers" about the story. When it comes to events that happen late in the story of a movie, that's understandable and not worth any sort of friendly reminder or contractual requirement. However, one of the so-called "spoilers" that can't be mentioned here is a very—let's call it—flexible interpretation of that concept. For one thing, it happens within the first 15 minutes of the movie, so everything that follows in this story necessarily depends on knowledge of that information.

The more frustrating and confounding part, though, is that the revelation is easily the most compelling element on which to sell an audience as to why this movie is so different from its predecessor—at least for a while. It's not the critic's decision, apparently, to determine what is and isn't important for a prospective audience to know about a movie before they watch it—or, since there is a good percentage of people who read reviews after watching a movie, for those who have seen the movie to engage with some analysis of material they already know.

The point is that this review will surely hint at that essential piece of exposition. Hopefully, that will be enough to satisfy the conflicting needs and desires of everyone involved, but it must be made clear that it seems as if everyone is losing out in this specific case.

The story, obviously, is set in Barcelona, nine months after the mysterious creatures from the first film appeared and started to cause those who see them to die by suicide. The threat of the monsters, which were such an intriguing metaphor for a sense of despair about an ever-changing and often-devolving world in the 2018 film, eventually gave way to people who saw them and embraced the misery, seeing it as a form of salvation. That group wanted others to see the monsters, too, and those villains are more the focus in this follow-up.

We meet Sebastián (Mario Casas), a survivor of the monster invasion, who is wandering the city in search of other survivors who can help him. He encounters one group, and after they all die in a really striking sequence, our protagonist goes looking for another group to join. That group includes Chloe (Georgina Campbell) and a little girl named Sofia (Naila Schuberth), who was separated from her mother during the early part of the monsters' arrival. If Sebastián and the other two sound dull and aimless based on these descriptions, that's mainly the unfortunate side effect of being limited in being able to offer any information about pasts, motives, and any actual goal for a main character in the plot.

What can, perhaps, be said about the plot—in as vague a way as possible—is that it does give us a character who is, by all accounts according to what we know from the original film, a villain. The Pastor brothers let us see this apocalypse from that character's perspective, truly having faith that the monsters are agents for some greater good for humanity and some higher power that can't be understood. It's a genuinely bold choice that forces us to sympathize with someone who does, through direct action, cause many deaths but who sincerely believes that the monsters are a benevolent force in the universe.

That setup is clever, because it adds a layer of suspense that's more personal than the mechanics of characters keeping their eyes covered whenever they go outside. If the first film got by on the strength of its central metaphor, this one subverts that metaphor in a way that flips the dynamic and toys with our sympathies.

Such a move can't last, of course, because the Pastors' script eventually reverts back to the routine that was firmly established previously (The presence of an infiltrator/saboteur in the group only raises questions of logic and disbelief that no one notices some very obvious signs that something is very amiss with someone until the plot requires it). Flashbacks work backwards to develop one character's past, whose history and motive are abundantly clear in the first act (Someone should tell parties so concerned about "spoilers" that the movie essentially spoils its own story by way of this structure). That means this sequel simply starts repeating the exact pattern established by its forebear—only in a new location and with a contrived, action-oriented climax.

Bird Box: Barcelona provides one ambitious twist to the formula of this plot. In refusing to deal with the real ramifications of that idea, though, the movie gradually settles on that formula.

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