Review of A Quiet Place Part II (2021) by Nozaman — 06 Jun 2021

Many of the critic reviews for this film focus on "craftmanship" or the fact it is a "post-pandemic" film. This is because the general goodwill toward Krasinski along with the desire to get people in theaters causes critic reviews to downplay the fact this film is a significant disappointment. Without the novelty of the first film's premise, A Quiet Place Part II becomes another one of those sci-fi horror films where characters seem to lose all critical thinking skills and take unnecessarily dangerous, often downright stupid risks. One of those where you constantly find yourself asking, "Why did they *do* that?".

This is all the more striking when you consider the first film centered on characters using ingenuity and -wise- decision-making to stay alive. Now they seem to know they are in a horror movie where tension and jump-scares are expected and, well, a character's gotta do what a character's gotta do. The characters themselves are still appealing, except for the new addition who takes Krasinski's place as Pensive Bearded Man. He is given so little context that none of his actions make much sense at all. Krasinski also feels obliged to have some characters utter a few clunky, pandering Deep Thoughts. As an entertaining albeit overly solemn horror film, Part II delivers on the jump scares, tension, and pretty landscapes and cinematography. The first film established a relatable, strangely cozy world with some very specific parameters. By the end of that film, those parameters were already beginning to hem in the plot. In the second film, those parameters can't hold up past the pre-credits scene. It seems A Quiet Place is destined to become just another horror franchise.