A Quiet Place Part II

2021

PG-13

It’s been a couple of months since my last movie review and it feels weird that it has been that long ago. I like to review a good mix of movies that have recently been released to DVD/Blu-Ray and ones that have been out for a while, but this is the first that I have done that isn’t available in stores yet. A Quiet Place Part II is currently in theaters, so I’m not going to give as detailed of a synopsis as I normally do, but I would like to give my opinions on it. If you haven’t seen the first installment of the movie, I definitely recommend watching it, but I will get into that later on. I won’t keep harping on with this introduction, so let’s dive in.

Since the movie is in theaters, I won’t dive as deeply into the story as I do with most of my movie reviews. Obviously, this movie is a continuation of the story told in A Quiet Place, which was released in 2018. The Abbott family is dealt with the task of fending for themselves after violent creatures with supersonic hearing come to earth and destroy humans and everything in sight or in this particular case, sound. The beginning tells of the first day that these creatures made their home on earth and how life had changed for the survivors over a year later. Throughout the film, the family must do everything they can to stick together and protect each other, but at the same time, the family’s infant makes things more difficult. With all of the horror and terror in this version of earth, there is a hope, somewhere, “Beyond the Sea”.

That is as far as I want to dive into this new film without giving away any spoilers. I have to say, it felt great to be back in a movie theater. With all of the mess that we all had to deal with over the last year and couple months, it feels great to get back to normal life. This is definitely a movie that was made for a theater setting and I’m glad that they decided to wait until things were getting normal again. Honestly in some ways, this movie correlated quite a bit with our lives over the last year and that was an interesting thing that I think John Krasinski may have tried to connect in his directorial efforts.

The cast was basically the same as it was in the first installment, with a couple changes, but nothing significant. The main protagonist was Emily Blunt in the role of Evelyn Abbott. I don’t think I have to explain who she is, as she is one of the most famous actresses in the world and I thought she did a fantastic job in this sequel. John Krasinski reprised his role as the father, Lee Abbott. Millicent Simmonds was the bright spot of the film in my opinion as Regan Abbott and Noah Jupe did great as well in his reprisal of Marcus Abbott. The most impactful new addition of this film was Cillian Murphy who played the role of Emmett and was portrayed as a friend of Krasinski’s character, Lee. I think pretty much every actor in this film did a great job in their respective portrayals.

Most of the film’s biggest critics complained that the movie was basically as copy and paste version of the first film. While I agree with the idea of that, I don’t think that is the case exactly. In most films that have sequels, if you know what takes place in the previous film or in this case the first film, and you know the tone of the film, you can expect that same or at least a similar tone in the next installment. I think that is what those critics are upset about, but with a film like this one, there are only so many turns you can take without it going into a ridiculous path. While the setting up of it was similar and some of the angles were similar, this was a continuation at the end of the day. Most of the complaints are that this sequel was essentially sequel. Well, duh… The A Quiet Place series is an original and the films in the series will be a continuous story, that’s how it works in a movie series. Also, another small gripe about the film was that it was too short. I don’t know about you, but a horror film that lasts over 2 hours isn’t exactly my cup of tea. This film was in fact 7 minutes longer than the first installment, so there.

There were a few questions that I pondered before watching this film and here are some of those questions. Did this film live up to the hype of the first film? Did this continuation mesh with the first one well? Can they viably make a third installment interesting? Yes, yes, and yes. The film had to take a 15-month delay due to the pandemic and with that delay, there was even more anticipation of the film being released to theaters. There was certainly a lot of hype surrounding it after the first film’s success and I think it lived up to every bit of the hype. And to answer the final question, the backstory of how the creatures came to earth and destroyed everything was a great way to introduce the action in this installment. It put the actions of the first film in a different perspective and enhanced the series as a whole. It was confirmed a couple weeks ago that there will be a third installment slated for a 2023 release date. There is still some business to take care of, so the third film has a ton of potential.

If you can’t tell by now, I definitely recommend this film. Do you have to watch the first film first? I don’t think so. It would certainly help, but I don’t think it is necessary. I think they tell you everything you need to know about the first one in this film, but with that being said, I wouldn’t skip out on the first film entirely. Another question is the overall quietness of the film. The first one was filled with a lot of sign language and not a lot of dialogue. Part II isn’t nearly as quiet, but the importance of quietness in the story is just as crucial. I think I read somewhere that the amount of dialogue was tripled from the first one.

The film is rated PG-13, but as far as letting your children watch this, if you have seen the first film and are fine with them watching it, A Quiet Place Part II is practically a similar amount of horror and violence. Language isn’t an issue, but there are a decent number of frightening scenes that could be a little too much for children to handle. If you have noticed the ratings, it has been rated well basically on every outlet. IMDb has it at a 7.8/10 currently. On Rotten Tomatoes, it is Certified Fresh at 91%, with an Audience Score of 93% and is also liked by 93% of Google users.

I recommend watching it in theaters, but if you aren’t quite ready to get back to your local theater, fear not. If you have Paramount+ it will be available to the public on July 12th. I was unaware of this getting released so early to the streaming service, but this is a great option for those who don’t want to fork out the ticket price. The DVD/Blu-Ray release date isn’t official yet, but I can’t imagine it being too long of a wait. Judging it by recent releases, I would say it will be released on DVD/Blu-Ray/4K sometime in late July or early August.

GRADE: 4.6/5

Yacs

Movie Review: A Quiet Place Part II

GRADE: 4.6/5