MOVIE REVIEW: A QUIET PLACE 2

The first movie, as I said in my review, was perfect. So, how does one follow-up a perfect movie? Do you play it safe and do more of the same? Do you take the sequel to new places? Or do you try and find some middle ground?

A Quiet Place 2 chose the first path, playing it safe and giving us more of the same.

Not that that’s a bad thing. And it DOES do a few cool new things, including an opening sequence that is pretty much perfect.

The movie opens back before the aliens from the first movie arrived.

In other words, we get to see the moments right before the shit hit the fan. Oftentimes, those are my favorite parts of post-apocalyptic movies — where you’re not sure what’s going on and you get to see how different people react.

There’s still a sense of mystery as characters learn what the hell is going on and what enemies they’re dealing with.

A Quiet Place 2 nails its opening.

And then, as it fast forwards to right where the last movie left off, it resumes that story, for better and worse.

We get to see the family interact with a new survivor, Emmet, (played by the always fantastic Cillian Murphy,) as they struggle to find somewhere safe from the aliens with supersonic hearing and lightning fast killing abilities.

I liked expanding the story out to include others and to show a bit of the threat that other humans still around face. The movie felt very Last of Us, and that’s not a bad thing.

The one thing I did NOT like, though, was how close it stuck to the first movie’s events. It’s difficult to talk about too much without giving spoilers, but the situations the characters found themselves in felt more like variations on the last movie than new ones.

And I wanted something a bit different.

There was one scene where our characters faced a different sort of threat. And it was a damned good scene. MORE OF THAT, PLEASE! But it wasn’t until the final act. And I felt it really could’ve been expanded on more, stretched out to have more impact, to be more of an obstacle.

If you loved the first movie, no doubt you’ll enjoy the second. John Krasinski as director again really ratcheted up the tension perfectly. And the performances of the cast were perfect.

But it’s essentially an extension of the first movie with little evolution of that film’s premise. In a lot of ways, I felt more like I was watching the second episode of a TV show rather than a movie sequel. In fact, I would LOVE this as a TV episode!

More of the same, not that that’s a bad thing.

I still loved A Quiet Place 2, and would immediately watch a third should it become a trilogy. And I feel bad that I didn’t love the one thing I didn’t love.

I wanted to love ALL OF IT!

MY RATING: 9/10 stars.

Now if you don’t want the movie spoiled, I suggest you STOP READING THIS POST NOW. Because I’m going to tell you my biggest problem with this movie.

There will be spoilers after the movie poster below.

SPOILERS BELOW!!

My biggest problem, and only problem, really, is that the movie ended on the exact same note!

The way they handled the monsters was more or less the same, right down to the abrupt ending.

I wanted more. I wanted a NEW way to handle the monsters.

END OF SPOILERS

Did you see A Quiet Place 2?

What did YOU think? Leave a comment below. And I guess if you’re also going to talk about the ending, post a spoiler warning. If you haven’t yet seen the movie, maybe it’s best to avoid the comments.