On the Big Picture Podcast, director John Krasinski stated the he originally did not want to be involved in making the sequel, but the producer convinced him to come over to pitch his ideas to the studio. After three weeks, Krasinski was asked to write the story with the idea that directorial duties would be handed over to other filmmakers. Eventually, Krasinski offered to come back as director.
The film's premier happened on March 8, 2020 in New York City and was originally planned to release March 20, 2020, but the movie was postponed several times due to the corona virus. It was pushed back from March 20 to September 2, 2020 to April 23, 2021 to September 17, 2021. However, more studios started to push their movies back to late 2021 and Paramount saw that A Quiet Place Part II would have had to compete with The Boss Baby: Family Business, Death on the Nile, and The Man from Toronto. So Paramount shifted A Quiet Place Part II up from September 17 to May 28, 2021.
In February 2021, Paramount announced that A Quiet Place Part II would be made available on their streaming service, Paramount +, 45 days after the movie's theatrical release. This was in response to Warner Bros. and their same day hybrid release, which was under heavy scrutiny by the media and Tenet director, Christopher Nolan, thinking WB was going to kill movie theaters and the movie going experience.
Review:
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.
Two months ago, I did a review on A Quiet Place and concluding that the first movie was a really great movie and I gave it a lot of praise. My expectation for A Quiet Place Part II was for something new. Maybe a new monster or a new breed of the monsters since the movie's synopsis builds on the idea that the things that hunt by sound are not the only things out there that acts as a threat. What I got in the end was a pretty good sequel, but it's not the type of movie that you need to rush out to theaters to see any time soon.
A Quiet Place Part II does not do anything new with the story nor are there any other actual threats other than the monsters we've seen from the first movie. The story follows Emily Blunt as Evelyn, Millicent Simmonds as Regan, Noah Jupe as Marcus, and Cillian Murphy as Emmett. In the first movie, Evelyn gave birth to a new baby during the time these creatures were attacking the Abbott family's home. Now, their home is totally destroyed and her husband, Lee (played by John Krasinski) is dead. So their only choice was to move on before more of these creatures show up. Upon venturing outside their home, the family comes across this warehouse and were unaware that the property was booby trapped. So they're being chased by one of these creatures and Emmett helps them hide in this small underground bunker. After being rescued, Marcus discovers music over the radio playing Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin. Regan takes this as a sign there are more survivors out there located to an island that takes a day to get by foot and boat. So after quarreling with her family and Emmett on her idea of finding these survivors, she decides to head off on her own while Emmett goes out to search for her. For the rest of the movie, the story splits in two between Regan's and Emmett's story to find these survivors and Evelyn's and Marcus's story.
The only thing the movie does that is new is introduce other survivors. There are two different kinds of survivors in the movie that are shown. The first ones are the ones found on the island living a normal life like nothing ever happened and the others are just savages, which were before Emmett and Regan made it to the island. My first thought was that they were cannibals, but they don't do anything nor does the movie show any motivation for holding Emmett and Regan hostage. Also, these types of people had a very small role and they wound up just being added to the monster's kill count. Same with the regular survivors that were found on the island that Regan and Emmett were traveling to.
I liked how the beginning of the movie showed what happened on "day 1" of the invasion and how the movie first introduces Emmett. He is shown to be a family man himself and seems to be very close with the Abbott family. He even asks Regan how to say "dive" in sign, which he remembers later in the movie saving Regan's life. Then, we see Emmett at his hide out and we learn what happened to his family and it makes you feel really bad for this man and why he was so hesitant on saving anybody.
As much as I liked the story, there were some things that I was left a little confused by. One of them was when Emmett going out to find Regan. After finding her, he and Regan have this big argument over which direction they should take. Emmett is trying to take her back to his hide out where her mother and her two brothers are, but Regan insists on moving forward to find the remaining survivors. Then the next day, Emmett just gives in and says, "Okay, we will do it your way," leaving Evelyn, Marcus, and the baby behind without any equipment that they could use to defend themselves with. You would think that maybe they could've put in more effort for them to a compromise. Emmett could've said, "Here is the deal. We will look for them, but we are not leaving your family behind. We go back, tell them the plan, make some last minute preparations, and then look for the survivors." Plus, Emmett even knew that there were some dangerous people out there, as well. So would it not make sense to travel in greater numbers?
I would have been fine even if the ending was a couple minutes longer showing Emmett and Regan arriving back at the hide out and bringing the rest of the family to the island where it would be safe since these creatures can't swim, apparently (even though we saw one of the monsters swimming in the flooded bunker in the first movie). But no, the ending had to re-establish that Regan's hearing aid and a microphone or stereo will emit a high frequency loud enough to stun the monsters. Wow, it's not like they have not been doing that the whole movie since the Abbott family have been carrying their stereo box the whole movie. I think if the movie had shown a couple more minutes of footage at the end showing the Abbott family made it to this island safely, then the ending would have been better.
That is not without saying that there weren't some great intense scenes in this movie. The scene with the run away bus chasing Evelyn and Marcus while Evelyn is driving in reverse was an intense scene. The bus just comes out of nowhere after Evelyn weaved pass a couple of these other cars driving the opposite direction. And the bus got close to running over the car, but what makes the scene amazing is when an arm reaches out of the front window and is trying to crawl out. That whole scene was like a rollercoaster ride and it made me imagine what that scene would be like if the theaters seats were moving. So there were some really good shots like that in this movie that I really enjoyed.
I will say that I did like how Marcus sort of grew as a character. Ever since the first movie, he was established as a scared little child. By the end of the second movie, he had to build up some sort of courage. He was given this responsibility to protect his family if Evelyn is not around or when she is unable to. And Marcus did step up to the plate by the end of the movie doing all that he can do. However, his courage to fight the monster attacking him, Evelyn, and the baby only appeared after Regan started conveniently broadcasting the high frequency noise over the radio. Once the monster is stunned, it can't do anything other than shriek in pain. So it gave Marcus an open opportunity to kill the monster out of convenience rather than finding out a way to do all of this himself.
Just based on the tagline "Silence is not enough" and the movie's synopsis, it had me thinking that there may be a new monster that appears in the movie other than the ones we saw in the first movie. It would have been cool to see other variants. Perhaps there could have been a flying monster that screeches this same high frequency like echo location and hunts the ones that crawl on the ground as well as people. Since these monsters are aliens they can't be the only creatures that were alive on their planet, right? Instead, what we got were just savages and they didn't play a big role in anyway. I don't mind showing that side of humanity in this post-apocalyptic world, but give them a bigger role. These savages felt tacked on to add tension where you know the main characters were going to survive anyways. They failed to meet my expectations of a "greater threat" as described in the synopsis and tagline. If a "Part III" is ever made, I think something like a new species of these monsters appearing would be most ideal.
Final Thoughts:
A Quiet Place Part II was a pretty good movie with a decent story, but it does nothing new from the first movie other than being a road trip. There were some nitpicks I had on stuff that confused me a little bit, but it didn't ruin the story for me. The ending could have been better showing Emmett and Regan joining back up with Evelyn and Marcus and they relocate to the island for a better happy ending. The marketing played up this "greater threat" idea which I expected to play a larger part of the movie's story and discovered it was just some bad people appearing for a few minutes just to be killed off by the monsters, which felt underwhelming.
Did you see A Quiet Place Part II? If so, then what are your thoughts on the movie? Leave a comment in the comments section of your thoughts on this movie. Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Minds, MeWe, and Gab to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.