And for a nice long stretch, the film languidly, and then suddenly not languidly at all, recaps what happened when the residents of a drowsy small town in Appalachia realised what the hell was happening, right in the middle of a little league game. It doesn't matter where we left off, since the new film rewinds all the way to beginning: "Day 1", as a title card in stark white on black tells us, the day that the Earth was visited by a race of horribly toothy, slimy alien quadrupeds that have neither a sense of sight nor of smell, but man alive can they ever hear. Indeed, while I would maintain that the specific strengths and weaknesses of A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place, Part II are different, sometimes substantially so, my impulse is to say that the two films end up so very close in quality and effect that it's hard to rank them, or even think of them as two separate objects. It is the sturdiest, most classical kind of sequel: one that basically does the same things, but does them in a somewhat different order, and with different emphases, and adds new narrative wrinkles to make it seem like the universe where the story takes place is larger than it was last time. And even though the obvious main pretext for A Quiet Place, Part II is the rather jaw-dropping return on investment that the first film represented, I would go so far as to say that it doesn't feel like writer-director John Krasinski was just forcing it out. I'm already looking forward to finding out what happens next - hopefully in a dark theater, watching as quietly as I can.A Quiet Place is the sort of film that doesn't leave nearly enough buttons unbuttoned and loose ends unknotted that you would assume it had to have a sequel, while also leaving enough room for a sequel that it would never feel like they were forcing one out just for the sake of business.
#A QUIET PLACE PART II MOVIE#
The movie ends on an inconclusive note, leaving the door open for another sequel, which is both frustrating and heartening. That makes A Quiet Place Part II an unexpectedly resonant film for the present moment as this country slowly emerges from a crisis that - while surely less terrifying than an alien apocalypse - has revealed humanity at its best and its worst. Some of the people they meet are as predatory as the monsters others are as brave and compassionate as Regan. As Regan and Emmett embark on a perilous journey in search of survivors, they find themselves in situations that give rise to both hope and despair.
The movie seems to think they both have a point. 'A Quiet Place Part II' an unexpectedly resonant film for the present moment as this country slowly emerges from a crisis that - while surely less terrifying than an alien apocalypse - has revealed humanity at its best and its worst.