Bird Box Barcelona
Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): July 14, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
16
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
72
PolygonTasha RobinsonJul 17, 2023
For people who just want more stories told in this world, and don’t mind leaving Bird Box’s initial characters behind, the spinoff’s small mysteries and shocks may be enough to occupy a Friday night or a lazy Sunday afternoon. But for people who want more depth out of their sad-dad-found-family horror stories, The Last of Us is already out there. Bird Box Barcelona just feels a little late to the game. Read full review
70
Screen RantFerdosa AbdiJul 11, 2023
The film is an effective, thrilling, frightening horror, perfect for those who enjoyed Bird Box and are thrilled by the prospect of more. Read full review
67
ColliderMarco Vito OddoJul 13, 2023
While Bird Box Barcelona is only following the trend, it is too bad to see the spin-off try so hard to keep fans excited about the next chapter that it undercuts the emotional weight of its ending. So, while the film surpasses the original in every sense, it still gets dragged down by the needs of a franchise. Read full review
66
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpJul 13, 2023
The film’s admirable attempts at preserving its enigmas, while finding the greatest unsettling effect in commonplace human fanaticism, offer an experience unique from Bier’s work with Bullock. But Bird Box Barcelona’s lack of grit and prevailing aversion to the gruesome realities of its own premise are a drag on the details that click. Read full review
64
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJul 12, 2023
Thanks to a couple of novel twists, it manages to outpace its predecessor in tension and originality—if not quite reinvigorate the franchise. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJul 16, 2023
With Bird Box: Barcelona, as with any film of this outlandish ilk, suspension of disbelief and an appreciation of propulsively destructive action sequences is key. Just don’t expect too many fresh ideas. Read full review
60
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJul 13, 2023
The result is a bleakly hopeless view of human nature that the finale, while cracking the door to a further expansion of the story, fails to refute. Read full review
60
IGNMatt DonatoJul 10, 2023
Bird Box Barcelona ekes by thanks to dependable and lived-in performances, but overstays its post-apocalyptic welcome across its almost two-hour duration. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJul 17, 2023
The will to live is missing from Netflix’s not-quite-sequel Bird Box Barcelona, and so is our will to watch. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayJul 16, 2023
The “Barcelona” edition is essentially a repeat of the first film, flaws and all. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 14, 2023
Novel setting aside, this just isn’t original enough to manage much in the way of shock and awe. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsJul 13, 2023
There’s nothing inherently bad in the Pastors’ film. It’s competently made with the general sheen you expect from a bigger budget. You are, however, left scratching your head about what another sequel could bring that this one clearly couldn’t. No one in this cast is as dynamic as Bullock, nor is anything as tightly conceived as in the prior film. If seeing is believing, Bird Box Barcelona doesn’t have much to show. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellJul 12, 2023
Bird Box Barcelona expands the mythology in several new and fascinating directions, but it also makes the mistake of posing several bigger questions that it doesn't seem to want to answer. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJul 10, 2023
The movie is technically accomplished, well-acted, atmospherically unsettling and certainly watchable. . . But as genre material, it’s generic. Read full review
42
IndieWireKate ErblandJul 10, 2023
Bird Box Barcelona has strayed so far from what made the first film interesting, scary, and yes, timely! that it remains but a distant memory, as if someone pulled a blindfold over our collective cinematic memory, for no real reason whatsoever, with no answers to ever be found. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJul 14, 2023
The Bird Box beasts may be back in business, and perhaps in films to come we might even get a proper look at one. But it’s hard not to feel the apocalypse has moved on without them. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJul 14, 2023
Writer-directors Àlex and David Pastor have come up with a tantalizingly evil idea, but they’re not cruel enough to see it through to its conclusion. Read full review
40
VarietyDennis HarveyJul 11, 2023
Though slick and more expansive in some ways, with bigger action sequences, it proves an overlong, uninvolving entry, in which any attempted fresh wrinkles to this fantasy universe offer scant viewer reward. Read full review
40
SlashfilmJul 10, 2023
Nothing takes flight here. Bird Box Barcelona might be the first of its kind, but it certainly will not be the last Netflix sequel or spinoff whose primary audience is a boardroom rather than a living room. Read full review
40
NMERhian DalyJul 10, 2023
With heavy-handed plot lines about misinformation, trauma and the struggle of evolution, Bird Box Barcelona often feels like the writers have picked subjects from recent headlines and tried to craft them into a moralising horror film. Read full review
40
EmpireJames DyerJul 10, 2023
A largely uninspiring re-tread of a superior film, this has some decent moments and enough gnarly deaths to keep horror hounds vaguely entertained until the inevitable arrival of ‘Bird Box Santorini’. Read full review
25
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJul 12, 2023
There is no thrill, entertainment or insight to be gleaned in watching the myriad ways people can die by their own hand. It’s just awful, and this is not a film that is interested in grappling with the trauma in any interesting or helpful way. Instead it is two hours of unpleasant drudgery. Read full review
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