Paramount Pictures
“Run!”
A Quiet Place premiered in the spring of 2018; a kickoff, if you will, to the summer season. To packed houses, as I remember, the audiences watched the film in what I would say is probably the quietest theater experience I’ve ever been to. Now flash forward to 2020 as A Quiet Place Part 2 is set to premiere. What has happened to the Abbott family since the end of the first film? Then something happened. The worldwide virus took hold and Part 2 was pushed back, and pushed back until indefinitely shelving it. Now the time has come, as our world slowly gets back to “normal,” for us to witness this long-awaited sequel.
John Krasinski is back to direct this second installment. Although it was believed for a while that he was to step down from the directing chair after the first, something has brought him back, and for good reason. The film begins as a prequel to the apocalyptic events. The families are enjoying the simplicities of life in partaking of a little league game. As if meteors from the sky, the aliens begin their fiery decent — destroying everything in their path. This sequence of pure action is brilliantly filmed. Krasinski has an almost “Spielberg” eye for building silent suspense and then exploding with edge-of-your-seat action. Soon enough, Part 2 picks up where Part 1 leaves off — Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) cocking the shotgun getting ready for war as their barn burns away. Lee (Krasinski), the patriarch of the family, is now dead after sacrificing himself to save his two children: Reagan (Millicent Simmonds) and Marcus (Noah Jupe).
The trio, along with the newborn baby, begin to walk a quiet sand path laid out by Lee in hopes of not attracting the creatures with their footsteps, but their journey will go farther than the sand path as it leads them to an old friend, Emmett (Cillian Murphy). His despair has turned his hope to rot, and because of this, he’s reluctant to help Evelyn and the kids. Reagan takes it upon herself to look for a way to now weaponize her cochlear hearing device that can weaken the creatures and tell any who may still be living.
Part 1 was near silent with only a few minutes of verbal dialogue spoken between the characters throughout the entire movie. So when it came to Part 2, Krasinski couldn’t use that same foundation for fears that a movie that silent could border on completely boring instead of interesting. From the very beginning, Part 2 is more high-paced, action-packed, and vastly more talkative. Emily Blunt, the star of the film, takes on a powerful female character. So much of the first film was Lee going the distance to protect the family, but we never saw Evelyn fully exhibit those qualities. However, now it’s her turn to take on that role, and she doesn’t shy away. Evelyn knows what she has to do to make sure her children are taken care of.
But from one strong female to another, Regan is by far the driving force of the film. Her storyline, should I speak on it may give away too much so I’ll refrain from diving into such spoilery storylines. Just know that Millicent Simmonds gives a hell of a performance as she out acts basically everyone she is onscreen with, and that’s saying a lot.
A Quiet Place: Part 2 is entertaining, action-packed, and a great way to end the curse of the movie theaters after a year. In March of 2020 when Part 2 was first delayed, Karsinski said, “One of the things I’m most proud of is that people have said our movie is one you have to see all together… As insanely excited as we are for you all to see this movie, I’m gonna wait to release the film til we CAN all see it together!” Well it was a long wait. A year, in fact. But with all of its thrill and chills, I can honestly say that Part 2 was definitely worth the wait.
A Quiet Place: Part 2
Written & Directed by: John Krasinski
Starring: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, and Cillian Murphy
Rating:
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