A Quiet Place Part II Review!

 Alright! Today I'm reviewing A Quiet Place Part II, which is a sequel to the first A Quiet Place and picks up exactly where the last film let off. And, not to my surprise, it was really good. Like, really good. Like, of the same or exceeding the quality of the last one. 

It cannot be understated, that last sentence. I literally cannot decide which one I enjoyed more. A Quiet Place Part II is the perfect sequel. It matches the first one in terms of quality, character, emotional weight, and action. Like, there's no noticeable slip in quality. There's nothing. It's a perfect continuation of the first film. 

And I guess I'll touch on minor spoilers. Nothing too big, but that's subjective. 

I had two extremely mild complaints about this movie - one was that the mother and son characters were sidelined, and the other was that the son did the obligatory horror trope where the kid goes and wanders around, despite knowing the danger, and then causes problems for everyone because of it. Those were my only two complaints. I liked everything else. 

One of the things I absolutely loved was the Day 1 opening. I came out of the theater wanting a prequel set on Day 1. The opening scene was intense, guys. It was action-packed and well thought out. It was an incredible way to start the movie, and, unlike WW84's unrelated 10-minute opening sequence, this one was actually relevant! Some of the stuff shown here comes back! So I enjoyed that. 

Is it bad that I always assumed the dad's name was "Jim?"

I enjoyed the rest of the movie as well. I really liked how the world was built, even if I wish it was just a tad bit bigger in scale. I really liked how the main character was the deaf daughter, because she's a really good actress and I enjoyed her quest to the island more than the "hunker in the bunker" subplot in general. 

I really, really liked Cillian Murphy's character, partly because he's Cillian Murphy, and Cillian Murphy is extremely underrated, and partly because he had some of the best moments of the movie. 

A Quiet Place Part II also had the same haunting score and cinematography as the first one, so good on it for that. I really enjoyed the score here. It has that sad, haunting sound. Just the sad little bell. It makes me feel sad and lonely, all in those two notes. 

Something that I disliked about the movie, which, funny enough, wasn't the movie's fault, was that I saw all the trailers. The trailers showed Cillian Murphy's character running around as a monster kills people, so when that doesn't pop up in the flashback, I knew that the island would be attacked. That was a regrettable decision. 

I took this directly from the trailer.

An extremely, extremely minor complaint I had was that the group of people "not worth saving" had a cloth tied around their necks. I think the idea was that they slit their throats to keep from speaking, but I wish it was more obvious because that's a really cool addition to the world of A Quiet Place. 

Something I absolutely loved about the movie was that I saw it in a theater. During the previews, the people sitting behind me were able to quote, almost word for word, the trailer for Free Guy. So I was really worried they would ruin the quietness with overly loud sarcastic comments. They did not. In fact, the entire theater felt like it was scared to breathe for nearly an hour and a half. I was honestly scared to sit back in my chair in fear of any sounds it could make. That was fun. 

Interestingly, I have the same question I have from the first one - Is this scary? My go-to reaction is, no, it is not scary. It's intense. Because there's honestly, like, one jump scare in the movie? Everything else is built by quiet immersion. I don't feel like the past two movies have been horror so much as they've been well-crafted, extremely intense regular movies. They're not scary. They're just... quiet. 

I left A Quiet Place Part II not only enjoying the experience but actively wishing for the franchise to be milked with a third movie and a prequel. That's a good experience. 

Overall, I give A Quiet Place Part II a 9/10. "A Quiet Place Part II is more of the same - granted, this same is a really solid, well crafted, intense movie that I enjoyed the daylights out of."

I want a third!