‘Bird Box Barcelona’ review: A tiresome, depressing Netflix follow-up

The premise of “Bird Box,” the 2018 thriller starring Sandra Bullock, was always a downer: A frightening force descends on earth that, if spotted, makes the viewer kill themselves.

For some deranged reason everybody watched that movie at Christmas. 

Oh, the coal they discovered.

“Bird Box” was a poor soul’s “A Quiet Place” in which, rather than noise being perilous, the danger came from merely opening your eyes. 

But its saving grace was the intense drive of Sandra Bullock as Malorie to protect two children by any means necessary. 

The will to live is missing from Netflix’s not-quite-sequel “Bird Box Barcelona,” and so is our will to watch.

From the offset there is a resigned feeling of “OK, we get it” as scared Spaniards bare their ojos only to hurl themselves off a building or walk into traffic. The repetitive deaths are neither shocking nor scary — they are only depressing.

“Barcelona,” which is mostly in Spanish, is not a sequel so much as a siesta, set during the early days after the creatures’ arrival. The chaos overtaking the streets and grim-faced news anchors on TV are surely meant to recall the first few months of 2020, which is what everybody wants to do this summer.

The No. 1 adult this time is Sebastian (Mario Casas) who is trying to keep his daughter Anna safe. But there is a dark difference between Malorie and Sebastian: He is one of a number of seers, who are able to stare at the monsters and then slavishly convince others to take off their blindfolds to their deaths.

Suffice it to say, Sebastian is not an easily embraceable hero.

Also explored with the dexterity of a cinderblock is the question of whether the creatures (that we still never see) are angels or aliens. 

Other than those appendages from co-writers/directors Álex Pastor and David Pastor, “Barcelona” is more of the same. Dad and daughter will predictably have a  run-in with a shadowy group hiding out in a cellar or an abandoned apartment (one guy is Diego Calva from “Babylon”), we hear their horrible story and then some of them die — obviously. 

The film’s sole improvement is that explosions and bus chases look top-dollar, which is not always the case for Netflix’s film offerings. Yet what do blown up buildings matter in an often nihilistic movie with no possible victory in sight for its characters?

I know we live an era obsessed with film and TV “universes,” but must there be one about suicide-inducing monsters?