A Quiet Place Part II

For what it's worth, I applaud director John Krasinski for waiting over a year to release his film. 

If you peep the image to the right, the poster indicates this was originally a March 20th release...in 2020. As we all know, March is when the world went to s**t, so obviously that didn't happen. 

Krasinski was willing to be patient and wait until the film could hit theaters instead. Before the movie starts, there's even a pleasant and excited "thank you" from him. And, much like the first film, A Quiet Place Part II proves that a theater is almost essential for at least your first viewing. 

*Cue all those who dropped $10K+ on their sound and TV setup telling me I'm wrong*

If you don't remember, I absolutely loved A Quiet Place back in 2018. It won several Rath Awards that year too including Best Original Score, Best Actress (Blunt was also in Mary Poppins), and was nominated for more. It placed #4 in the Reader's Choice Top 10 and was #6 on my own list. So yeah...it did some damage in 2018, not to mention it's near-perfect score. 

A Quiet Place Part II - in all fairness - was always going to have a hard time living up to the original. For lack of a better term, the first uses a "gimmick" (albeit an insanely effective one) and gimmicks tend to wear off. Part II would test Krasinski's directorial skills and storytelling ability to see if they could capture magic once more. 

While not as immediately as effective or memorable as its predecessor, A Quiet Place Part II is still one hell of a ride and yes, it begs to be seen on a very big and very loud screen. 

Opening with "Day 1", we get some more backstory as to how this alien invasion went down. There's a palpable sense of dread here, given what we know, but this is an impressive opening for Krasinski who basically puts most of the "quiet" stuff away for 15 minutes and is filming a massacre. It's riveting stuff and while not as "Holy s**t" captivating as the original film's opening...this pulls you in nearly as much (though I'd argue a little too much of this part was in the trailers). Afterwards, we're placed right where we left off with Part I. Evelyn (Blunt) and her children have just figured out a way to kill one of the aliens despite heavy losses on their end. Soon, they're on their way to find a nearby local. It's here where A Quiet Place Part II's biggest weakness starts: unnatural character motives and some unexplained/dumb decisions. 

This Mary Poppins sequel looks intense...

The first film was consistently smart and it felt like the characters were consistently smart too. The intensity felt well-earned because they had been so careful that anytime something went wrong, it felt unfair. In Part II, I struggled to understand why exactly they left their farm in the first place. Why not rebuild? Additionally, each of the children eventually go on their own "solo" adventure (no spoilers). While one has good intentions, I question why it had to be in "secret" and the other is probably the dumbest character choice in the entire film. Combined with the novelty of it all wearing off (kinda), the intensity seems more forced. It's the type of stuff that as an audience member, you get over it pretty quickly and just accept it, but it also means that it can't be a near-classic either. 

Aside from that core issue I had with Part II, it's a tremendous movie otherwise. Blunt has wayyyyy less to do in this one, but is still a strong anchor. If anything, the film's main character is Regan (Millicent Simmonds) who is deaf in real life. She gave an excellent performance in the first film and this film all but solidifies her as one of the best child actors I've seen in some time. Subtly, she's able to command the screen and her relationship with Emmett (Cillian Murphy) gave me Last of Us vibes. Everyone is committed to their roles and there's no weak link, even if there's no one quite as incredible as Blunt was in the first film (though...Simmonds gets close). 

The direction is also top notch and Krasinski - unless this is an elaborate fluke - is going to go places behind the camera. Much like the first film, he has good balance of editing and pacing, but also framing of characters and where they are in the spaces they occupy. The opener is a really good example of this, as are several other parts in the movie. Just past the midway point he balances 3 intense scenarios, all taking place at different locations surprisingly well. If anything, there are probably a few too many cuts back and forth, but I'll be damned if I didn't have a huge knot in my stomach as the series of 3 scenes all peaked around the same time. It's impressive stuff - and probably one of the more memorable moments of the year - and the film still has more intensity to give after that too. 

"Kids, how many knuckles deep you think I can get?"

Also worth mentioning - similar to the first - is everything related to sound. The original score continues to be a fitting "ticking-clock" mechanism of its own and the editing of sound is yet another highlight. They play with complete silence on more than one occasion, making whatever loud noise comes in next all the more shocking. Again, citing the opener, whichever character we're following we get their audio cues so as the framing goes from the daughter to Krasinski's Lee, it's almost like a "single-take" audio adventure that feels unique.

A Quiet Place Part II was always going to be a challenge (COVID not included) to follow up just how intense and impressive the first film was. Audiences loved it (if they could handle it). Part II, for the most part, earns its place in this trilogy(?) by only being a smidgen less of a film than the first, but still very much worth your time and money to see on the big screen and support your theaters!

CONS

• Intensity feels less "earned" this time around thanks to some either unexplained or dumb character decisions
• Some sections cut back and forth between scenes a little too much
• Ending is abrupt
• The novelty has slightly worn off

PROS

• Intensity may feel less earned, that doesn't mean it's not dialed to 11. From start to finish, this is a thrill ride and a particular 3-scene-weave near the middle nearly gave me an anurism
• Impressive cast once again. Blunt takes a bit of a backseat for child-star Millicent Simmonds who is wildly talented. Cillian Murphy is also a welcome addition and, per usual, does amazing
• Original score perfectly fits and ratchets up the tension
• Sound editing, once again, on point
• Short and sweet...holy cow it's only 97 minutes long and only feels like 60-70
• Impressive direction again from Krasinski. I would love to see a Part III of this since there seems like more story to tell, but either way I'm on board for what he does next
• Truly worth seeing in a theater! It was worth waiting to release it that way

Rath's Review Score | 8.5/10