A Quiet Place Part II

Has a Part III to this series been announced yet? Cuz I need a Part III as soon as we can get one, preferably yesterday.

Taking place directly after the events of the first film, A Quiet Place Part II follows Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) and her children, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), Marcus (Noah Jupe), as well as their newborn sibling as they traverse a world still ravaged by mysterious monsters that hunt via sound. Needing shelter after they’re forced to leave their farm after a vicious attack by the creatures destroyed it and killed their father, Lee (John Krasinski), the NAME family stumbles upon their neighbor, Emmett (Cillian Murphy), and beg him to take them in. Hesitant at first, Emmett becomes swept up in a life and death struggle to keep Evelyn and her kids safe while simultaneously saving his own soul in the process. Oh, and there’s way more sound creature monster things!

Right off the bat A Quiet Place Part II hits the ground running in ways that I didn’t expect from a sequel to a movie that didn’t technically need another entry. Kicking things off with a revealing prologue set on Day 1 of the first appearance of the creatures, returning director John Krasinski is somehow able to bring fans back into the world of A Quiet Place with ease and purpose.

Adding more creatures to the mix along with a few new characters to broaden the scope of what the world is going through during this invasion of the sound monsters, the script and direction stay steady and consistent throughout, with maybe one or two missteps throughout that can easily be overlooked but not easily ignored. I won’t spoil anything here, but there’s more than one moment where the contrivances of the story hurt the script in ways that almost feels forced, unrealistic or just plain dumb, but it’s luckily never enough to be more than a hiccup in the grand scheme of the film. Throw in a scene with some other human survivors that didn’t seem to make too much sense to me given the timeline of the world they’re living in, and you have a film that’s competent, no doubt, but not entirely firing on all cylinders like its predecessor.

But my big takeaway after watching this one is how good and enjoyable it is to watch Emily Blunt act. Obviously having more to do (when not giving up screen time to Cillian Murphy’s character), Blunt is able to further turn her character into one of the strongest and most fully realized female leads in recent memory. Having absolutely killed it in the first film, Blunt brings the same defiant and commanding performance to this sequel and helps the script along when it loses its way from time to time.

Wrapping things up is Cillian Murphy as Emmett, an interesting new addition to the overall cast and one that plays well against Blunt and the actors portraying her children, both of which are clearly getting better at their craft if this movie is of any indication. Throw in some exciting action with some more world building that works more than it doesn’t, and you have a movie that may not be better than the original, but was totally worth making and seeing regardless.

So while I might still prefer the original to this sequel, A Quiet Place Part II proves that there’s more than enough gas in this particular franchise’s tank to pump out a few more. As for me, I really enjoyed the expanded elements of this film, and despite some story beats that didn’t make sense to me, I’ll take as many sequels as I can get; as long as they turn out like this one, that is.