Let me start by saying that A quiet place: part one Is really well put together. This movie paints a beautiful picture of how someone can become selfless through their own suffering. Nothing feels spoon-fed but the story is so digestible that it gives you space to appreciate the intricacies of the smaller stories.
This movie is really good, and I will be adding it to my collection; not only because I enjoy the concept and depiction of this world that Krasinski brought to life with the first film, but also because this one is genuinely just a good watch. It’s my perfect type of “horror” movie because it’s really just Jurassic Park raptors with more jump scares–this time in a cityscape environment with crumbling buildings and exploding cars flipping about.
I didn’t like that all we saw were helos and humvees flying by before the action started, but I may have to accept that part of the thrill for A Quiet Place is that you don’t get to know any extra details about these killer aliens.
That being said, I gotta admit that I went in with the wrong expectations for this movie. I think part of it was because they billed the movie as the start of the whole conflict in this film universe (how do you interpret the marketing slogan “hear where it all began”?), but it ended up feeling way too similar to the first movie in how it narrowed in on really focused character development as opposed to the greater circumstances. That’s been a constant theme of the franchise (which I love), but I expected “Day One” to be a bit more revealing as to what the heck is going on in A Quiet Place.
I’m not saying the director should have referred to the 1996 film Independence Day starring Will Smith when making this movie, but Roland Emmerich was able to tell a story about an alien invasion while also weaving in a divorce drama, a blended family proposal, as well as the separation + reunion of the President and his wife AND her eventual death that led to the President risking his life to save the world.
I can’t believe this is where I’ve gotten, but my point is that you can tell a human story while a bigger threat is looming and still let the audience in on what’s going on. Am I crazy, or should I not be asking where these melon-headed vampire horses are coming from?
I hate to be a reductionist here, but I felt like this was really just another story about a human with a special inclination for how to navigate the new dangers of the world. I don’t think that should take away from this movie’s value, but I have to say that a prequel usually adds some sort of value to the films it precedes, but I don’t think I’ll go back to either of the other two Quiet Place movies and credit anything other than Djimon Hounsou to the events of Day One.
Maybe that’s a sign that this franchise only has so much room to grow, but I was hoping this movie would allow the franchise to develop further, whether that be thru new narratives within this movie or new avenues paved by the events of this movie. A prequel movie should not only be looking backward, but I feel like that’s what happened here.
