A Quiet Place: Part II (2020), directed by John Krasinski, stars Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Cillian Murphy, Noah Jupe, Djimon Hounsou, Scoot McNairy, and John Krasinski. The film picks up immediately following the first film’s events and follows the surviving  Abbott family as they attempt to find a new home. They soon cross paths with Emmett (Murphy), a former family friend who is a broken shell of his former self. When Regan (Simmonds) leaves the group to investigate a mysterious radio signal, Evelyn (Blunt) tasks Emmett with bringing her back. In the process, Emmett rediscovers a sense of hope while the family learns to come to terms with the death of their father/husband. However, they soon discover that the monsters aren’t the only threat they need to worry about. 

Blunt and Simmonds carry over their strong performances from the previous film with the latter taking on a much larger role. Jupe is serviceable but is mostly relegated to providing the necessary pained and fearful facial expressions. As for Murphy, he’s a wonderful addition who’s able to stand up to Krasinski’s strong performance in the first film. His motivations are somewhat mysterious and it creates a good amount of tension in the first half, I just wish we would have received a bit more insight into who Emmett was to the family before the world ended. Was he just a friend? If so, what kind of friend? Like a majority of this film and its predecessor, everything is kept extremely simple. 

Although not quite as strong as the first, the film boasts an impressively efficient script. It expands the world in ways all good sequels should and works as a natural continuation in both themes and story. That being said, the script does slightly backtrack on the awesome cliffhanger ending of the last film. You can tell Krasinski originally never imagined that film to have a sequel.

Character dynamics are a bit more complex, but in turn, feel a touch less natural. For example, there’s a forced element involving how the kids initially treat Emmett where they sort of scorn him for trying to replace their dad. What? Who? He’s just there and he’s a man. If there was a romantic element between Murphy and Blunt, I could maybe see this working, but instead, it feels awkward and unrealistic. The script also occasionally has a tough time finding things for certain characters to do. It often cuts back to characters as they sit in a room and wait, which quickly becomes uninteresting. At the end of the day, the script’s biggest issue is that there just aren’t nearly enough surprises to engage the viewer in a way that feels like we are seeing something truly creative. Well-made it is, original it is not. 

The film also struggles to use silence as effectively. The hushed speaking is often tough to hear and makes me appreciate the first film’s choice to deliver most of its dialogue through sign language, therefore naturally providing subtitles. There are also a couple of realism errors that were tough to ignore such as a 12-year-old girl firing a shotgun one-handed as she experiences zero (and I mean ZERO) recoil. 

Overall, this is a big step down from the first film but it’s still impressive how Krasinski seamlessly fuses story and theme. Like the first, it’s a film a person can enjoy at the surface level, but also features complex themes to undercover if one wishes to do so. I loved a majority of the execution and this is still one hell of a ride, it just doesn’t stand out in any way that truly excites me. B