Bullet Points: A Quiet Place Part II

I just love it when great movies get sequels.

I never expected, after watching several seasons of The Office, that Jim Halpert would become such a great and in demand actor. By the end of the series, he was nowhere near an interesting character and it personally made me care less about him as an actor. Big mistake. He’s shown that he’s a fantastically talented person and when couple with his wife Emily Blunt he’s damn near unstoppable.

Synopsis: Following the events at home, the Abbott family now face the terrors of the outside world. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats lurking beyond the sand path.

• Day 1: If you don’t remember from the first film, aliens have totally landed on Earth and fucked shit up. The entirety of the first film is spent with the Abbott family at their farmhouse. Now, we get to see how things started as the aliens attack the small town and we get a great scene of the returning Jim Krasinski attempting to escape with his family.
• Leaving the farm: The end of the first film also saw the Abbott family leaving the farm after a run-in with some of the aliens and the death/sacrifice of daddy Abbott. They see a flame off in the distance and know that there must be someone who is still alive over there. What they find, however, isn’t the most useful companion.

• Murphy: Aside from the fact that I would love for Cillian Murphy to play Robocop, he does a great job as Emmett in A Quiet Place Part 2. He’s a former friend of the family and a man who has lost everything. Why he has continued on is an interesting question that never gets answered but it’s clear that he is dealing with all sorts of internal issues alongside his constant fight for survival.
• The Kids: Whenever there are kids in a movie you have to know that line where they go from helpful to annoying. Anyone who has children knows that they have a really hard time staying quiet but when noise can kill you, it’s extra difficult. Young Regan and Marcus bring with them various positives but also a great deal of negatives. Regan, of course, gets all of the good scenes in the film as she goes on a quest to save everyone while Marcus pretty much screws up left and right. Most of the film is Emily Blunt trying to protect her newborn baby from his mistakes. Oh yeah…mommy Abbott just had a baby like 16 hours ago.

• Escape: Regan and Emmett learn that there is a radio tower on an island somewhere close which appears to have survivors on it. She takes off for it because she’s reckless and Emmett ends up chasing after her and gets roped into a whole new mess. The other survivors out there aren’t all good people and they run into a few who aren’t exactly there to help them. Luckily for them, the aliens are even worse and kill the shit out of them.
• The only good alien is a dead alien: It doesn’t matter why the aliens/monsters have appeared. It’s not some misunderstanding that is causing them to freak out and kill everything. The good thing is that loud noises hurt the creatures and young Regan realizes exactly what it is gonna take to destroy these things. The hard part is that even with this new weapon that they have against the creatures, they are still in a pretty bad position. It does, however, make for some high tension as all of the storylines collide just at the perfect moment for the noise to do its job.

The Verdict: Another incredible installment in this series that is somehow not connected to the Cloverfield Universe. It seems like it would be a no brainer but different studios and such are probably the reason for that. Full of so much tension you could slap it between a couple slices of focaccia and eat it till you got a tummy ache. I personally enjoyed the first film a little more but some of that could probably be because of the originality of it. Emily Blunt is an absolute boss and she proves once again that she can do whatever she wants in front of the camera and she’ll be amazing. Babies are tough. In a world where you can’t make noise, they’re pretty much a death sentence. Krasinski totally should have pulled out and not put his family through the troubles of having a newborn. I digress….a very thrilling flick which I hope won’t be the last from these folks.