A Quiet Place Part II Review
A Quiet Place Part II (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by John Krasinski, and starring Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cillian Murphy, Djimon Hounsou, John Krasinski, Wayne Duvall, Okierette Onaodowan, Scoot McNairy, Zachary Golinger, Blake DeLong, Gary Sundown, Cristalis Bonilla, and Domonic Taggart. John Krasinski’s 2018 mega-hit, the original A Quiet Place, earned great reviews and big box-office numbers so it’s no surprise Krasinski wrote and directed A Quiet Place Part II to cash in on the “monster” success of the first picture. He even brought back his real-life wife Emily Blunt to star again. While Blunt gives a strong performance as Evelyn Abbott a mother who would do anything to protect her children, it is Millicent Simmonds, who is deaf in real life, as her daughter, Regan, who steals the show.
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Krasinski starts his sequel at the beginning. He brings us back to the events that propelled the action in the first picture. He even reprises his role from the first film in these flashback scenes. The innocence of a Little League baseball game is offset by the arrival of alien creatures who thrive on sound and attack based on what they hear. There are some exciting run-ins with the creatures in this early pre-title sequence. Evelyn alongside Regan, her son Marcus (Noah Jupe), and her newborn baby are trying to avoid the creatures the best they can. Enter a family friend named Emmett who the audience can glimpse if they don’t blink in the opening scene of the film. Evelyn and her kids encounter Emmett and he seems to have the urge to protect them from the monsters. The plot thickens when Regan discovers that the old song being played constantly through a convenient communication device, “Beyond the Sea,” could be the key to providing a location where the Abbotts and Emmett can go to be safe. As she embarks on a mission to save her family, she ends up reaching for a first-aid kit when a monster arrives on the scene. Some of the scenes in the picture, just like in the original, are quiet. Some are played to no sound to relay to the audience the experience of the deaf Regan. And just like in the first film, these scenes allow audience members to hear other people watching the film in the theater with them munching on their popcorn. Cillian Murphy is always intriguing and this is a nice return to the silver screen for him. You may remember him from his turn in Batman Begins which is still his best role to date. He creates a believable character who, at times, makes the audience question his motives. In the last half hour, Djimon Hounsou from Amistad pops up to remind Hollywood that he’s still around and ready to prove his two Oscar nods for Best Supporting Actor were no fluke. Let’s get Hounsou a better role in a new Hollywood production ASAP! He’s not bad at all in A Quiet Place Part II but he’s not given much to do. Simmonds walks away with the film. She’s ultimately the character the film’s plot mostly runs with and every scene she’s in keeps our eyes glued to the screen. She’s smart, strong and has the willpower a great character in a film needs to have for the movie to work. Blunt, sporting a cast on her foot for her injury from the first film, is pretty much just in the background as star power but she acquits herself admirably in her role. Jupe, as her son, has his moments as he tries to protect the small baby from harm and his character, Marcus, also gets a leg/foot injury of his own to boot in the film, not to let Blunt’s Evelyn be the only one with an injury. Krasinski re-works the formula from the first film well. It’s not much different than the first film in terms of the overall pacing of the picture and there’s not much uncharted territory explored here. Kransinski does manage to be quite successful in his staging of the scenes featuring the creature attacks. These sequences are a lot of fun and engage the audience in a way that a true Hollywood blockbuster should. That being said, you’ll want to see A Quiet Place Part II on the big screen to be kept engaged by the entertaining plot. If nothing else, a crowded theater will provide an audience with the ability to hear other audience members munching on their popcorn thus creating a true shared theatrical experience. The great performance by Millicent Simmonds and the exciting creature attacks are the icing on the cake. Rating: 7/10 Leave your thoughts on this A Quiet Place Part II review and the film below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more film reviews can visit our Movie Review Page, our Movie Review Twitter Page, and our Movie Review Facebook Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, and Flipboard.
