Say it loud: ‘Quiet Place’ sequel just plain dumb

MOVIE REVIEW

“A QUIET PLACE PART II”

Rated PG-13. At AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay, Landmark Kendall Square and the Capitol Theater in Arlington.

Grade: C

What are these “Quiet Place” movies if not M. Night Shyamalan films directed, and in this case also written, by John Krasinski. Well, why should Shyamalan have the market cornered on silly alien invasion flicks. The “Quiet Place” films feature Emily Blunt, Krasinki’s wife, as Evelyn Abbott, a post-apocalyptic, shotgun-toting Mary Poppins, who in the first film gave birth to the couple’s fourth child without uttering a sound since any noise attracts the attention of fast-moving alien creatures resembling gorillas with much longer limbs and with lid-like flaps on their heads. Oddly enough for a film about staying quiet, “A Quiet Place Part II” begins with hideous pounding, creaking noises that suggest the sound you might hear if a giant were pulling a battleship apart. The 2018 entry “A Quiet Place” has a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I am proud to say I was in the 4th negative percentile. I believe the negatives will be higher this time out. We shall see.

This entry begins on Day 1 of the alien invasion, which features many families at a park in an idyllic, American town (the film was again shot in northwestern New York), Something appears in the sky, and the townsfolk are terrified, but calmly return to their homes, only to find aliens landing on their SUVs, smashing things and killing people. Lee Abbott (Krasinski) realizes quickly that the beasts are attracted to noise and saves himself and his deaf daughter Regan Abbott (Millicent Simmonds), who will later learn that interference from her cochlear implants causes the monsters to freak. Cut to Day 474. Evelyn marches barefoot with her son Marcus (Noah Jupe) and daughter Regan and her infant in a box being fed oxygen to keep it quiet when it is awake. It’s hard to keep a baby quiet in a post-apocalyptic world, right? Over the mountain next door, they find beardo Emmett (Irishman Cillian Murphy), who lives alone in a warehouse with a big, airtight, steel furnace with a big locking handle. Hmm. When you’re barefoot, you should watch where you step. The thing about these “Quiet Place” movies is that not only do the characters have to remain quiet, so does the audience. The things might attack at any moment, and the suspense is intense, unless like me you find that the movie is a whole lot of hooey.

Who are these aliens who have no means of getting around on the surface except running and are apparently doing it buck naked? Why do they want to crush cars and kill humans? What’s in it for them? I realize that I should not expect films produced by Michael Bay to be intellectual, but really. Marcus turns out to be a burden because he is loud, dull-witted and stupidly curious. Regan, who is like her heroic father, sets out on her own to find help. In a very conspiracy-theory-baiting turn, she thinks a radio station playing Bobby Darin singing “Beyond the Sea” is sending her a clue. Break out the tin foil caps. The film lurches from one crisis to another. We follow three separate lines of action and are told that – holy Cormac McCarthy – some humans who are still alive are not very nice. Blunt is a terrific actor and a magnetic screen presence, and she can do the hero-mother thing to a fare-thee-well. Murphy is also a big talent. Djimon Hounsou (“Gladiator”) appears in a role that is a cliché in this type of film, perhaps a metaphor for his entire career. A pox on these dumb “Quiet Place” movies.

(“A Quiet Place Part II” contains violence and gory and gruesome images.)

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3yUL7ou