For todays movie I’m hitting the sequel to one of the movies from last years October challenge. That is A Quiet Place Part II from 2020. Released in the middle of the pandemic this one sort of slipped by without the hype that followed the first, reactions to it were only lukewarm, but the film still holds a decent IMDB score of 7.2. The first film I had issues with but gave it a decent score because of how well it did the tension and the how good the monsters looked.
The sequel reunites Emily Blunt As hardened survivor “Evelyn”, Millicent Simmonds as her deaf daughter “Regan”, Noah Jupe as her son “Noah”, and John Krasinski briefly as their father, but mostly in assuming his role as Director. They are joined by Cillian Murphy as “Emmett” a previously unseen family friend who reluctantly finds himself slotting into Krasinski’s role. Fun fact between Krasinski and Murphy you have the most common fan casting for Reed Richards and Doctor Doom. Don’t hold your breath on that one.
October Review Challenge – Day 12
Anyway, the movie starts off with some flashbacks to remind us of the premise, to give a glimpse of Day 1 of the arrival of the monsters and of course to give Krasinksi a bit of screen time since he’s going to be around anyway (Spoiler for the first movie – He died). We’re then lead into what seems like not especially long after the events of the first film where the family are searching for a new place to live. Noah is injured by a bear trap, but the group stumble across an Emmett at a steel mill who helps them out.
In the mill they discover a signal on the radio which Regan thinks is a sign of survivors and also thinks they can use the radio tower to broadcast the high frequency signal she discovered can incapacitate the monsters so that other survivors can use it (Assuming they have a radio, it’s tuned to that station and they figure out the purpose of the signal). The rest of the group think this is a bad idea so she goes out on her own. Emmett ends up following her where they do indeed discover some other survivors. It’s never that easy though and the monsters naturally show up to ruin everyone’s day.
Plot Armour and Squishy Heads.
The monsters look great. Perhaps better than in the first movie. However the tension of the first movie is diminished a little here. The fact that we already know the monsters have a weakness and also that you can basically just shoot them in the head, lowers the tension somewhat and the fact that they basically have to orchestrate through stupidity ways for the characters to attract the monsters doesn’t help. At one point Regan kills one by pushing a metal bar into it’s head. If a child can kill these creatures in such a way, I don’t really feel like they are at global extinction level for threat status.
This is one of the biggest problems with the film, while the monsters look good they feel less of a threat. Partially because of the things learned in the first, but also because this film seems to have activated plot armour on some of the characters. Especially true of Regan who really, let’s be honest as a deaf child in a world were monsters with great hearing home in on the slightest sound is not going to be a great survivor. This movie even has her go off on her own and while she did almost get killed she survived long enough that Emmett turns up to save her at the last possible moment.
Make Some Noise.
What I did like is that at least one member of the group saw the value in finding a way to broadcast the signal. My biggest criticism of the first film was that it took a complete fluke for anyone fighting these monsters to figure out that creatures that have insanely good hearing may be sensitive to sound. Seemed kind of obvious, but having discovered that had the group not looed to use it on a larger scale I would have been really disappointed.
Unfortunately only Regan seems to see the value in this as Evelyn is too busy protecting her three kids and Emmett has largely just given up. That’s not a flaw as such, given the situation not everyone is going to be thinking of the big picture. I’ve got to say though, if Regan’s plan was just to broadcast the feedback it seems to make a wild assumption that random survivors are going to figure out they can now use radios as weapons.
Dumbass Raiders.
At one point in the movie a group of raider types try and kidnap Regan and it seems unnecessary contrived. For a start the group is much larger than any group of survivors we’ve seen. They seem to have a technique to trick people so they can attack them and that plan seems to entirely rely on the idea that their victims would rather have their possessions taken, their children kidnaped and basically be left for dead instead of risk making a noise and attracting the monsters.
On top of that they seem to rely on the kidnapped children also remaining quite. Something that seems unlikely. Obviously it doesn’t work and they all get themselves killed. Dumbasses. It’s worth noting at this point while this is going on, Evelyn is picking through an abundance of supplies at a local pharmacy, even finding extra oxygen tanks for the contraption she uses to soundproof her baby. This is not a world where everyone is fighting for a few resources.
Plot Contrivances.
As far as I can tell the group exists just to facilitate how a monster got to the island sanctuary and to set up the drama at the end. Which they wouldn’t need to do had they not decided to put the radio tower on an island with a group of survivors that are free from the monsters. The pair are barely there for a moment before things go to hell and they end up in a desperate chase to the radio tower, which makes the entire Island thing pointless. Had they been after a tower on the mainland they wouldn’t need the dumbass raiders.
While all this is going on the story also throws in a tense situation with the rest of the family which is basically entirely set up by Marcus being stupid and ruining the safety of their steel mill hideout. Their entire sub story felt unnecessary and put in just so these characters had something to do. I can’t help but feel Emily Blunt is wasted in this one.
Conclusion
Ultimately I feel like this is a sequel that wasn’t needed and adds nothing to the story. At the end of the first film, they’ve found a way to fight and lost two family members along the way. This film, the family loses nothing and they take the next logical step in using what they learned in the first. It’s not a story that needs telling or really impacts anything. The only person with a character journey in this is Emmett, who was introduced for this film and his story isn’t exactly good since it’s pretty much done just through dialogue. With all that in mind, I can’t really give it higher than 5/10 and that is only for the strength of some of the individual scene involving the monsters. The story is weak and the novelty has well and truly worn off here.
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