A Quiet Place: Part II

Details: MPAA Rating: PG-13

Cast: John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Cillian Murphy

Release Date: May 28, 2021

Pros: The first "Quiet Place" movie was a fresh innovative spin on the monster-horror genre that I thoroughly enjoyed. Thankfully, I can say the same thing for the sequel. A Quiet Place: Part II is heavily led by its acting. Millicent Simmonds is the standout role of the film especially taking into account that she is deaf in real life, it makes her performance that much better. Emily Blunt, as always, proves herself to be a brilliant actress. Cillian Murphy is a great addition to the cast that adds on to the emotional depth that the first film established so well. Although he is not reprising his role in the film, John Krasinski is once again proving that he is a very solid director. The cinematography mixed with the sound mixing is very well done providing a tense environment for the entirety of the film. The moments that stand out to me are when the camera is focused on Simmonds's deaf character in the movie, there is zero sound to feel her perspective of what's going on in the movie. In terms of plot, there are relatively no holes in the movie and although it is not nearly as scary as the first one, it still provides a very tense atmosphere that remains with you for the 1 hour 40 minutes run time of the movie. There are moments in the film where I cringed due to the sheer brutality of some of the things the characters have to endure. Not to mention, the opening sequence of the movie is one of the best opening sequences I've ever seen and sets the tone fantastically for the rest of the film.

Cons: While most things are the same from this movie to its predecessor, there are some things that are lacking. The characters seemed a little stiffer this time in terms of character development and I felt, as an audience member, less empathy for these characters than the previous film. I was really only invested in one of the numerous storylines in the movie and that was the one with Cillian Murphy and Simmonds. To add on to that, one of the defining features of the first movie is it broke the horror trope of characters making face-palming, stupid decisions, but unfortunately, this trope returns in the second film. There are definitely moments in the movie where I wanted to scream at the movie theater screen to prevent a character from making a stupid decision. Finally, the movie run time felt a little bit short and made me audibly say "That's it?" when the movie was over.

Rating: 7.5/10

Final Thoughts: While there are some flaws, A Quiet Place: Part II, is a worthy successor to the first film and provides a tense movie-going experience filled with great acting and direction from Krasinski.