A Quiet Place: Part 2 (2020) Dir: John Krasinski

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I recently revisited this film's popular predecessor, in part, because I had it in my mind to watch this soon after. Once again directed by John Krasinski, I expected a lot of thematic and visual continuity with the first film. With reviews being, generally speaking, fairly positive, I was fairly comfortable with the notion that I'd enjoy this sequel.

As I had expected I might, I enjoyed the use of sound, or the use of an absence of sound, throughout the film. That said, it did feel like this sequel did very little new with the concept. The impact of it was notably subdued, with the novelty of it having worn off to a fairly significant degree. This may, to a certain degree, have something to do with personal taste, but I'd still have liked something fresh from the concept.

The narrative was very much a continuation of the first film, to the surprise of no one, I'm sure. Only, I found it to be a lot weaker than the first part. It honestly just repeated the rough story of so many other post-apocalyptic monster films. It felt like watching 'The Last Of Us' or 'Dawn Of The Dead', and not necessarily as well done. My issue is the lack of creativity in the film - it doesn't do anything new, even compared to the previous part.

The acting made this film feel much better initially than I actually think it was. Emily Blunt was terrific, but her character's writing troubled me. Her protagonist adhered heavily to traditional gender roles, something that only became increasingly obvious for me in this film. Her character's only personality traits revolved around being a mother.

I thought that Millicent Simmonds was tremendous in her role. She showed a lot of growth compared to her already good acting in the first film. She had instant on-screen chemistry with Murphy, and continued to have a good on-screen bond with Jupe as well. She felt very natural just about the whole way through.

Noah Jupe's increased role in the film was a real note of positivity, for sure. He justified that bigger presence with some very emotive acting, which I appreciated greatly. He particularly excelled with his louder, especially emotive scenes. I think there was one particular scene towards the end of the film where he was legitimately quite excellent.

As always, Cillian Murphy was very solid in his supporting role, but I genuinely thought his character was a little boring. He basically just filled the exact same role as Krasinski's character had in the previous film. Speaking of the film's director, both he and Djimon Hounsou were good for the miniscule time they were both on-screen.

Overall, I have to say I was a little underwhelmed by this one. I found its lack of originality a little disappointing. The acting was the film's biggest positive by some distance, but it felt like glossing for a rather uninspired film underneath. I really wanted to like this film a good deal more, but I guess my expectations were a little too high. I must stress, this wasn't a bad film, but it wasn't as good as I was hoping.