'A Quiet Place Part II'

In early April 2018, the unheralded horror thriller "A Quiet Place" was released to little fanfare, and became a modest hit. The film came from a seemingly unlikely source: John Krasinski, best known, of course, as Jim from "The Office," who directed, co-wrote, and worked alongside his wife, Emily Blunt, in a film about a family, led by father Lee (Krasinski) and mother Evelyn (Blunt), trying to survive with their children, including their deaf daughter, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), and son, Marcus (Noah Jupe), in the aftermath of an alien invasion by a fearsome, insect-like species who detect their prey solely by sound.

Co-written by Krasinski, Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, the original film had a plucky ingenuity to it -- much was made about how the family had been forced to adapt to this new hostile environment by cutting back any excess noise (they ate their dinner on "plates" of lettuce leaves, for example) -- which helped it through some of its more maudlin impulses. It also had at least one killer scene, involving Evelyn having to give birth by herself, in total silence, as an alien lurked nearby. It was clever enough, and, because the characters had to maintain their silence, the film also caused the crowded audience to be equally quiet, lest they draw direct attention to themselves. It was a neat piece of audience-inclusionary meta-filmmaking, back in an age where theaters could be packed, and where such group dynamics were taken fully for granted.

Three years later, in the wake of a brutally devastating pandemic that eroded the very idea of communal experience, the zeitgeist is in a very different place, and "A Quiet Place Part II" feels almost archaic, a throwback to an earlier, simpler time in our collective humanity. As is very often the case with sequels, it also proves difficult to re-create the tonal success of the original without simply repeating itself. The new film, originally slated to be released last year, pre-pandemic, lacks much of the plot rigor of the original, breaking its own stated rules for sake of heightened drama. It feels more than a bit warmed over -- three-day old leftovers that are enough to fill you up, but not with much pleasure.

It begins with a coda, on the day the invasion began, which, among other things, serves as an excuse to bring Krasinski's Lee back to the screen, albeit briefly, after sacrificing himself for his kids in the first film. It also gives us a chance to meet Lee's friend, Emmett (Cillian Murphy), who factors mightily in the proceedings. From there, we leap ahead to Day 474, immediately after the first film's conclusion. With the farm still burning, and their house rife with danger, Evelyn packs up the baby and the other two kids and heads out to where Regan saw another flame burning off in the distance.

They arrive at an abandoned foundry, where they find Emmett, now hirsute and alone, his family having been wiped out by the aliens months ago. From there, the plot goes into splintered overdrive: Regan hatches a plan to head out alone to a small island off the coast, which is broadcasting a radio signal (playing "Beyond the Sea" in an endless loop), in hopes of utilizing her specially modified hearing aid to transmit the feedback signal that drives the aliens into confused discomfort, with Emmett dispatched to bring her back safely; Evelyn, meanwhile, leaves Marcus with the baby in order to return to their local pharmacy to pick up medical supplies; and Marcus, anxiously alone, has to contend with another extended visit from one of the murderous bipeds.

The film doesn't offer the sort of well-planned twists of the original, but it does employ a cross-cutting sequence between the three plot strands that visually ties the separate action sequences together in a way that is at least in the realm of engaging. Alas, other than that, and an inspired sequence from the coda, in which the camera is placed inside Evelyn's car as she frantically tries to avoid the aliens in town, while suddenly confronted with a passenger bus careening toward her (all while the film incorporates a pair of sound fields, from Regan's point of view, and otherwise), there aren't a lot of these sorts of transporting moments.

Instead, we get a series of all-too predictable plot beats, amid some questionably constructed mechanics -- just why is it, for example, the denizens of the island broadcasting "Beyond the Sea," don't just stop playing cute and cryptic and play a looped set of instructions for getting out to the island (the creatures, it turns out, can't swim)? For that matter, how is it if the creatures can't swim, there aren't a sizable number of people -- either on ships or similar relatively small islands -- not making their presence known?

I realize it's generally a losing proposition to rehash questionable logic beats from a monster movie, but the film derives much of its kick from the conceit that it's grounded in a recognizable reality -- hence, the winning lettuce leaves of the original -- goading you into believing in the characters' plight, such that with every lazy plot-enhancer, nonsensically stuffed into the proceedings, it puts the whole enterprise at risk of not being worth the effort at all. If the original film's secret sauce was its ingeniousness, the sequel's lack of it becomes all the more glaring.