'A Quiet Place Part II' delivers thrills on par with original

A Quiet Place Part II is pure entertainment. Like the original film it has its gaps in logic and it doesn't really have much of a message, but it gets the job done with expertly crafted action set pieces and some really terrific emotive acting from its terrific cast.

John Krasinski has sole writing duties on this one and he effectively maintains the tone and the tension of the first film. The bravura opening attempts to do a little world building -- even though we still haven't learned where these nasty creatures came from and what they want, and that's fine. Really, these films are one long chase punctuated by human moments and when these scenes are delivered by actors like these it's hard to complain.

While Emily Blunt doesn't have as much screen time as you'd think, she owns the screen whenever she is on it. She is such a wonderfully expressive and heartfelt actress, she can do so much with so little, and she is a badass heroine whenever the film calls for it.

But the real stars of the film are Millicent Simmonds (the hearing impaired actress who was such a moving and momentous part of the original) and the consistently underrated Cillian Murphy. He supplants Krasinski as the male lead and with all due respect he's an upgrade. 

He gives this sequel depth and gravitas and whenever the movie threatens to be redundant he brings a certain vitality to it. Krasinski is also very good with his actors, although I was disappointed by how little screen-time Djimon Housou has in the movie.

He crafts several impressive sequences that build well on each other and introduces some wild new elements -- cannibals!? -- although I don't know how long the whole high pitch sounds are the creatures' kryptonite can be sustained. 

Still, this film is far more accomplished than it needed to be for a fairly hastily assembled sequel (it was due out in early 2020, which would have been just two years after the original). While the film doesn't end on an obvious sequel set up, its inevitable success suggests there will be a third film -- and while I enjoyed this movie, probably just as much as the first, I'm not sure where this series can really go from here.

But, this was my first good time at the movies since I saw Tenet in theaters last year. A Quiet Place II replaced the bad taste that Spiral left in my mouth and kept me, mostly, on the edge of my seat throughout.