Reed Alexander's Horror Review of 'A Quiet Place 2' (2020)

I have to admit, compared to the original, this movie is pretty forgettable. I'm not saying it's bad, and it is interesting to know what happens after the first film, there just isn't much to it. What's left of the Abbotts basically abandon their farm because it's no longer safe (and half wrecked). It suggests that once the invaders hear you, they can also narrow down your location from long distances. That means once you make enough noise, they'll never stop coming. That's a neat little filler that kinda ups the stakes and makes the invaders seem like more of a threat.

Then the film is just more of the same. Be quiet or the Invaders will find you. Yeah, they throw the human element into it. There are interactions with survivors that are not friendly, as you would expect out of a post-apocalyptic movie. But it's really no different from the first movie where one of the Abbott's neighbors almost get them killed. Sure it's not quite the same, but it isn't anything new or interesting. They needed to lean into it to make it more interesting. This movie should have been more an exploration of how the surviving humans could be just as bad as the Invaders. That needed to be the central focus of the second film, but it only gets one scene. Cillian Murphy's character Emmett should have started out as more of a threat than a friend. It would have made his transition more significant, that much more powerful. I just can't help but feel like there was a better movie right there.

Over all, it was still good. The atmosphere is still thick enough to cut with a knife. The settings are absolutely brilliant. The FX are still solid. The Invaders are still interesting, even though the concept has TONS of problems as I highlighted in my review of A Quiet Place (2018). The movie is still good. The acting is even good, but we knew that.

There is far more about it that I'll get to in the spoilers, but my biggest complaint is how they spoon-feed the aliens. Especially since there's no reason to. As silly as the idea for the Invaders is, they do work rather well and are more than capable of getting shit done without every fucking thing in the film making their job easy.

In any event, it was still worth the watch, still a good movie, just not a worthy sequel.

SPOILERS!!!

So you're telling me, that the Invaders that whipped out all civilization as we know it... the aliens with the OBVIOUS WEEKNESS that our military was more than capable of exploiting... the aliens who need to expose their delicate squishy bits to use their superpower... are also unable to swim. HOW, pray tell, HOW did these creatures nearly wipe out the human race? The prequel, A Quiet Place 3: Day One (2024), had BETTER have a really good fucking explanation for that. I can understand a massacre at first, heavy fucking casualties in the chaos, especially in urban centers, but completely take over the planet? Not fucking possible. And on top of the obvious weakness they had from the first movie, we've decided they also can't swim... Who fucking wrote that?!?

Anywho, this is what really brings me to my biggest complaint about how the movie spoon-feeds the villain. There are dozens of examples. Like how the baby box is always running out of oxygen, or how every fucking thing that is obviously going to make noise is always directly in the way of every fucking thing else. But the biggest one that pisses me off is how one of the god damn invaders accidentally floats up to an island of survivors. You see, the plot is mostly about finding a safe place to get away from the Invaders. A haven. And, of course, they do find it. It's on an island where the Invaders can't reach because they can't swim. So what happens? During one scene an invader gets stuck on a boat. It can't jump to shore so it just sort of floats away. WELL GUESS WHAT! That little bugger floats all the way over to the Island where the survivors are. Because, of course it does... That's just hamfisted writing.

Don't get me wrong, it's still worth it. It's still a good movie. I still want you to watch it. It just isn't really wasn't all that impressive and doesn't quite live up to its own potential.