The sequel to the 2018 film 'Bird Box' has been released on Netflix. What it turned out to be and whether it turned out at all – in our review.

The events of the new part of the franchise take place a couple of years after the attack of mysterious alien creatures that force earthlings to commit suicide at the mere sight of them. Most of the planet's cities are already in ruins. Small groups of survivors hide in basements, closed parking lots, and abandoned houses.

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One of them is a young father Sebastian (), who together with his daughter Anna (here the main secret of the character will be revealed immediately) moves through the streets of Barcelona in search of provisions and a safe place to sleep. Now you have to fear not only aliens. Groups of blind marauders and fanatics operate in the city. The former are not afraid to walk openly on the streets and take everything that comes to hand from the survivors, the latter forcibly force people to look at the aliens so that they 'see the miracle'.

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One day Sebastian stumbles upon a small international group of survivors, including a British psychiatrist Claire () and a little girl Sofia from Germany who lost her mother.

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From them, Sebastian learns that there is a safe place in Barcelona on Montjuïc mountain and the cable car to it is still working. After a short debate about the feasibility of the hike, the group sets off for the destination. But Sebastian has his own goals in this journey. Moreover, he still hides from his companions the ability to see the strange creatures and remain unharmed.

The first part of the 'Bird Box' franchise with Sandra Bullock in the lead role was released in 2018, right after the release of the more commercially successful , which only the lazy did not compare Susanne Bier's film to. And these comparisons, understandably, were not in favor of 'Bird Box', which, by the way, did not look so bad, and a number of scenes were even shot as if M. Night Shyamalan himself had a hand in their creation (for example, the moment of the madman's attack on the main character's home).

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'Bird Box: Barcelona' was taken on by other authors. The script was written from scratch (while the first part was based on the book by Josh Malerman) by brothers David and Alex Pastor ('The Last Days', 'The Corporation', 'The Lost House'). They also took the director's chair and, as best they could, tried to expand the story, adding not only urban locations of destroyed Barcelona (which clearly lack scale here) but also a large number of various hidden (or not so hidden) meanings and metaphors. But they are presented so poster-like and artless that there is no need to chew anything anymore. All that remains is to swallow.

The question is not even about being ahead of the first part of 'The Box', but about how creatively richer the ideas can be for an already well-established plot about a post-apocalyptic world, an alien attack, and dangerous expeditions from point A to point B, where it is warm, light, and safe. 'Barcelona' does not solve these artistic tasks (well, except for the first 20 minutes of the film, where there is indeed an interesting plot twist). Otherwise, the directors choose a trivial and straightforward path, without hesitation revealing their sources of inspiration.

For example, groups of survivors follow each other, exactly repeating the painting 'The Parable of the Blind', the gloomy Sebastian constantly faces a painful choice – to save or not to save, as if he is from The Last of Us, dogs stand guard over the survivors as in 'I Am Legend', and the action scenes want to be like 'Children of Men' or 'The Book of Eli'. But it does not work out very well.

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The didactic part, in general, also does not captivate with novelty. All the same tropes about how grief can dry up a person, about blind faith in humanity, about the need to fear people, not aliens, of course, comfortably fit into the overall genre rhythm, but do not evoke the proper response, because, not that they are outdated, but they have long become classics, and the authors of 'Barcelona' have not offered a fresh perspective. Even the ending here is predicted long before the events preceding it.

As a result, 'Bird Box: Barcelona' is a film in which everything interesting happens at the very beginning, and then the pulse of the picture begins to rapidly fade, turning into an unpretentious and, overall, optional spectacle.