Director: John Krasinski

Story By: John Krasinski, Scott Beck, and Bryan Woods

Cast: Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cillian Murphy, and Djimon Hounsu

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When I watched A Quiet Place back in 2018, I gave the film a B. I found the concept to be really different and interesting, and I also wasn’t as “wild” about the theater experience with the sound production (something I take back now, and actually appreciated then AND now). 

One comment I made in that review was, “This film could’ve been 2-hours to give some background to these creatures,” and “Unless they are planning to do a sequel to explain more, I wasn’t happy with how the first one ended.” 

Now we have A Quiet Place Part II, and the title is actually really fitting as it is a continuation of where we left off + it attempts to give some background to the creatures—so everything I asked for. 

However, I still found this sequel to be somewhat safe because it felt like a recycling/repurposing of the original…but then again, what else could’ve been done while also keeping it feeling so real? 

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Below are my grades for key components in #AQuietPlace2 that I find to be key in any story/film/series—Theme, Plot, Pacing, and Character Arc/Development. 

Additionally, I have added an entertainment factor scale to help you determine whether or not the film is something you’d be interested in taking time out of your weekend, evening, or day to watch. The scale range consists of: Worth the Watch/$$$, Interesting Enough (if looking for something new to start), & Don’t Rush.

I have also added a few non-spoiling thoughts, wonderings, and comments as I watched the film to help give some rationale for my grades and entertainment scale.

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Theme: A

Plot & Story: C

Pacing: A

Character Arc/Development: A

General Entertainment Factor: Worth the $$$

Film Enthusiast Entertainment Factor: Interesting Enough

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TAKEAWAYS:

1. Similar to the first film, the acting is really strong. 👍🏾👍🏾

2. And to piggyback off of point #1, Noah Jupe understood his assignment and did what he had to do with all expression. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👍🏾

3. I found the messaging of the film to be pretty solid. What stood out for me was a theme around what ignites and maintains our fearlessness. We see this theme carried through with the character Regan, and developed with the character Marcus in Acts two and three. 👍🏾

4. I loved the way the sound editing shifted with Regan when she was grabbing that first aid kit. I really felt immersed in the scene/moment. 👍🏾👍🏾

5. Chiiiiile, who are these folks at the damn docks? How did we get here? Why/for what purpose?🤦🏾‍♂️👎🏾

6. Another sound production moment that was powerful for me was Regan waking up to what she thought was possibly betrayal. I felt that. 👍🏾👍🏾

7. Pacing was another solid component to this film. Granted, there is a lot of movement through scenery, but it added a layer of tension for me as a viewer with the knowledge of what we know can quickly disrupt all of that beauty with a sound. Additionally, the film provides perfect moments of jump-scares and intended anxiety to help provide texture to the pacing. 👍🏾

8. After 474 Days, Marcus hasn’t gotten used to seeing crazy shyt? Like dead bodies? 🤨🤦🏾‍♂️

9. You know…Cillian Murphy is a handsome man. He’s aging so well. 🙃

10. Speaking of handsome… YEEESSSS Djimon! 😩🤤

11. I bet Krasinski and the editing team felt like they did the damn thing with that paralleled climactic scene. It was shot and edited well, though. 🥴

12. Let’s talk about this story…for the most part, the story is good—Our family goes from seeking survival together, to half going on a quest to provide an opportunity of survival for all. Act one does a good job quickly catching us up, while also providing a brief display of how things even kicked off. Act two develops and initiates the shift in the survival plan, and Act three works to bring us to a close. 👍🏾

Now, my grade is because of how we get to Act two. It felt a little lazy in terms of writing creativity. The selling point that Evelyn makes to Emmett isn’t really strong. Not to mention the “friendship” she mentions isn’t really exemplified in Act one. Also, despite what Emmett has “seen of people,” it wasn’t what he was seeing with the Abbott family, soooo… why continue being hesitant and resistant? This just felt too forced for the sake of moving the plot to me. 🤦🏾‍♂️🥴

13. The overall graphics and cinematography were nice. 👍🏾

14. Here we go again with this ending… I don’t know if I want another installment…but then again, we clearly need to know what the next steps were. 🥴🤷🏾‍♂️

15. The character arc/development was best observed with Noah Jupe’s character. Regan was a pretty static lead character, with Marcus seeming to be more dynamic. Additionally, Emmett also goes through a pretty decent development, though forced a bit. 

Both Marcus and Regan’s arcs also support the overall development of the theme because each had to figure out how to tap into, and/or maintain, their fearlessness for the sake of survival—Marcus more than anything. 👍🏾👍🏾

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Overall, #AQuietPlace2 is A Quiet Place-meets The Last of Us Part II video game- meets 28 Days later. At first, I thought I wanted more from this sequel, and felt that it didn’t quite live up to its box-office numbers. Not to say that I thought it was bad, I just thought it was safe (as mentioned in my introduction). But in processing through it all, it really is a well done film. The story could’ve been a little tighter, but the other components make up for the small ball drop in terms of creativity in the writing department for me. 

And again, Noah Jupe was the MVP of this film in my opinion! Just amazing!