'A Quiet Place Part II' review - Krasinski can't repeat the same trick twice
“Run.”
It’s the morning after. The monsters have gone. A shaken family emerges from their hiding place and makes their way into a hostile, unknown world.
When it was first released a little over three years ago, A Quiet Place quickly became one of 2018’s most surprising word-of-mouth hits making a little over three hundred million on a budget of twenty-one million. Written and directed by and starring John Krasinski, the post-apocalyptic thriller made waves with its unique world-building and premise. A sequel seemed like an inevitability.
On March 8, 2020, A Quiet Place Part II premiered in New York City. Four days later, the film was delayed for the first time to May of that year. Then to September. Then to April 2021. Then to September 2021. Then backwards to May. Finally, with movie theatres across the United States and Canada reopening, A Quiet Place Part II opens in all of its glory.
And the results are less than spectacular.
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| Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, and Noah Jupe in A Quiet Place Part II. Image: Paramount. |
I will start with what I felt to be the most positive element of the film. The cinematography is the highlight here. Director of photography Polly Morgan captures the movie beautifully on wonderfully grainy 35mm film, but it does little to redeem the entire experience.
A Quiet Place Part II suffers from a strong case of sequelitis. The film is shallow, underdeveloped, lacks any clear narrative purpose or direction, and showcases some truly atrocious pacing and plotting. I think the problem here is that Krasinski doesn’t know what to do next with the world he has created. Not really, at least. He created a great original film but can’t find a compelling enough reason to keep the series going. He has broad ideas but they are so unspecific — just like this paragraph.
The characters feel one-note and shallow. Although the cast does the best with the material they have, there’s no complexity to these characters which is extra disappointing given how emotional the original film was. Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou are the most notable additions to the film but the incredible cast is underutilized. Two-time Academy Award nominee Hounsou is relegated to “Island Man” in the closing credits.
Further, the narrative doesn’t have any drive. Crises begin but aren’t resolved. The characters are in peril, but for what purpose? Where is this movie going? Why should I care about these half-baked notions of drama or first-draft versions of dramatic questions if you won’t resolve them? Characters moving around do not a story make.
Part II seems to serve only to move characters around into their starting places for the eventual Part III. It’s the movie equivalent of a TV filler episode. Regardless, Part II proves that Krasinski can’t repeat the same trick twice.
And then the film just ends.
Wait, that’s it?
Score: 2
A Quiet Place Part II is now playing in theatres.
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