A Quiet Place II
It's time to be quiet again.
In A Quiet Place Part 2, Krasinski takes a step back from the cast list to further hone and cement himself as an established director. That’s not to say Krasinski doesn’t make an appearance on screen; he's front and centre in a prelude to set the scene for audiences, when life was noisy but blissful, only to be brought to an a jarring silence as the world as we know it is invaded by Aliens. The Abbott family, including dad Lee (Krasinski), mum Evelyn (Emily Blunt), daughter Regan (Millicent Simmond) and son Marcus (Noah Jupe) scarily survive and are forced into a life of silence. The sequel jumps forward to the end of Part 1 at day 474, with the family reeling after the loss of Lee and seeking an alternative refuge and other survivors.
With new born in tow, the family travel beyond the sand path, which had safeguarded the family before the loss of Lee and into the unexpected path of their former friend Emmett (Cillian Murphy), who’d been briefly introduced in the prelude. After having established that Regan’s cochlear implant can be weaponized against the aliens to hold them off, Regan goes in search of a platform to exploit this, as well as to find and help others. With Marcus debilitated, Evelyn is unable to retrieve Regan and instead persuades Emmett to find Regan. With Marcus’ condition likely to worsen, Evelyn too is forced to venture outside the confines of Emmett’s fort to find supplies. It’s at this point that the film splits into three diverging storylines and probably where the film loses its momentum.
While Krasinski has a unique method of layering multiple narratives, employing a consistent element (quite literally, fire and water) within them to sew them together as he jumps between them, it distracts from the suspense which was so well contrived in the first instalment. Fortunately the performances are solid and the only criticism is that audiences didn’t get more of Blunt due to the splintering stories and the new character development with the introduction of Murphy’s character, which too could have been refined as the character felt underdeveloped and slightly contrived.
