Film Review — A Quiet Place Part II
More of the same, not as good, but still enjoyable
It seems unfairly dismissive to sum up A Quiet Place Part II as more of the same, but not quite as good. After all, the direction and performances are as strong as they were the first time around, and there are just as many suspenseful scares. However, because the concept is now familiar, the law of diminishing returns inevitably kicks in.
The best thing in the film is the exceptional prologue. It flashes back to just before the nasty sound-sensitive monsters decided they were going to 1) invade our planet (an assumption based on a big explosion in the sky that looks like something falling to Earth), and 2) behave like deranged school exam moderators demanding silence, on penalty of disqualification from life. Here we briefly see the genesis of how Evelyn Abbot (Emily Blunt), and her children Regan (Millicent Simmonds), and Marcus (Noah Jupe) ended up playing a lethal game of family values versus the apocalypse. We also get a brief cameo from Lee Abbot (John Krasinski), who bit the dust in the previous film.
Of course, Krasinski also directs, as before, and this he does to great effect. His skills are particularly evident in a set piece on a train, showing just how dangerous it is to miss the monsters when shooting, even if you do have a handy…
