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Summary: A woman named Sam finds herself trapped in New York City during the early stages of an invasion by alien creatures with ultra-sensitive hearing.

So I reviewed the first film but never got around to reviewing the second, when this one leaves theaters, I’ll rewatch all three and then do my review of the sequel. I’m pretty sure I have a draft lol. So you can check out my review of A Quiet Place. I will also try to keep spoilers to a minimum. Scroll to the end to see any spoilers.

Pros:

Cast and Characters. So there are other characters in this film, Alex Wolff as Reuben who works with Sam does a great job and I thin he has great rapport with Sam and he definitely has a tension filled sequence. I liked his beard. Djimon Hounsou returns as Henri and he does have a few impactful scenes, one, I totally understood because I probably would have done the same lol. But he becomes more important in the sequel so I think he was in this film for continuity purposes. I usually go into a lot of detail about characters but I think with this, I can’t do that as much because the magic of them is what you experience as the movie goes on. So some basic information.

• Lupita Nyong’o as Samira “Sam”. Sam lives a kind of life where she’s probably not really living but she goes with a group, including Reuben to a marionette show in Manhattan moments before the attack. Sam unfortunately is knocked unconscious and wakes up with other survivors. I liked Sam’s character because she could be described as “callous” or “detached”, “unemotional” to an extent and I think that’s true but she absolutely has her reasons and surviving doesn’t mean the same to her as it may to everyone else. Over the course of the film, we do see things begin to change for her when she’s forced to spend time with Eric. You can easily understand her motives (I think at least), and you’re on the ride with her because she’s not complicated. Lupita never misses when she’s in a role, she is so good as Sam. She is able to do so much with her expressions and eyes. You feel her fear and desire to make it to where she’s going because to her she’s gonna do it regardless on her own terms.
• Joseph Quinn as Eric. Eric is an English law student who is introduced after escaping a flooded subway station and he encounters Frodo. He ends up following the cat back to Sam and he basically attaches himself to her hip even with her constantly trying to get him to leave for evacuation but he’s clearly in shock and terrified. As the film goes on, we see a reluctant (really on Sam’s part) friendship blossom between the two and we see Eric, who is so afraid, really become so brave throughout. He really does some things that are literally insane but he’s so brave for it. Also, he’s absolutely sweet. The grumpy and sunshine trope fits here, to an extent lol. Joseph Quinn is extremely charming, likable and amazing as Eric. If you’ve only see him as Eddie Munson(check out some of his other tv roles, he’s very versatile), then be prepared in how different this character is and I think he plays this sad, wide eyed, puppy very well lol.
• Nico & Schnitzel as Frodo the Cat. Gotta mention the cat, so cute and maybe some of his scenes will take you out of the film and I don’t want to give away what his role was prior to the mayhem but because of his role, I kind of understood why he may not have acted like a normal cat? But I can understand why it might take some people out of the movie. But it’s fantasy, it worked for me lol. Refer to the end of the review for a spoiler about the cat.

Tension/Horror Aspect. It’s a scary movie so the scares are good. There’s only one that while I think it’s a good scare, I literally went “mmcht” right after it happened lol. I jumped but I knew it was coming and felt lowkey cheap. But all of the scares I think are effective and the tension because characters get into precarious situations where you’re terrified for their lives. This happens a lot and I remember tensing up so bad and you just never know. The movie is PG-13 so you only get so much but I think what we see is effective and strong for these movies. The budget is larger than the other two but I think they used it wisely. You also have to pay attention to the outliers of the screen because you might see something you probably missed the first time depending on where you’re looking. I know I did.

Quiet Moments/Emotional. I teared up both times I watched the movie. These movies are about the people and Day One delivers on that. Sam and Eric end up having this mutual relationship that is so sweet and built up over the days we see them together. The first time I got officially emotional was a scene during a rain storm, because I get it and I would do it too because of course it’s frustrating and feels hopeless and terrifying. I also teared up at the end because I mean, I knew what Sam’s goals were from the beginning and when she met Eric, they shifted but never changed. There’s hope at the end, even if with the information we have from the other two films. Obviously there are a ton of quiet moments since you have to be quiet and this allows for the acting to shine through the characters, which makes the writing extremely important. Sam and Eric are fully realized characters who are brought to life wonderfully by the actors, so when they’re just engaging with each other, through body language, mouthing and facial expressions, for me, it works because they are literally in the thick of it all. They’re in Manhattan so there’s noise all the time.

Sound Design. I think these movies have to have great sound design because a movie about being quiet so every other sound that isn’t made by humans can shine? That’s impressive. I saw it twice and the second time, it was much quieter in my theater so I could appreciate the silence a lot more. But also, how the monsters… “Death Angels”, sound when they’re either communicating with each other, how they open their face to hear the sounds… or how you can hear water/rain/crackling fire in the background when characters are speaking to each other. It’s all so very strong and it does make you pay attention to how things that you wouldn’t even think about, makes noise.

Favorite Sequences. I have three scenes in particular I really love for different reasons. One is the shot of all the people in NY trying to evacuate per instructions, I won’t get into it but you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. As the scene went on, I was like “oh,” because I knew immediately what was going to happen. I also love the entire sequence in the subway with Sam and Eric, from the moment they go in there and so on. Then the ending, from the moment with jackets (if you know you know) till the end. I mean, they’re probably some of the strongest sequences in the movie… for me. The emotion I felt during these scenes.

Cons:

Missing Scenes. I might be in the minority here, but I would have liked to have had at least two extra scenes, maybe three. The first scene is I would have liked to see how the people figured out the Death Angels can’t swim or attack according to sound. But I’ll get into that after. I also would have liked to have seen Eric before the first moment we see him. Not that I needed him and Sam to run into each other before because that’s cliché but it would have been nice to cut back to him either waiting for the subway because how exactly did he end up there? Especially popping out of that water all loud lol. I do like what we got but I personally think it would have been nice, since he’s the co-lead.

Frodo the Cat. This isn’t a con to me but I wanted to address it for those who may feel like what’s going on with the cat takes them out of the movie. I’ve also seen this complaint lol. I can understand why you may think this but it didn’t affect the movie for me because not only was he symbolic (symbols you have to figure out for yourself) but it’s explained why he acts this way. It made sense to me lol. Sure, it’s a little far fetched that this cat is as well adjusted as he is, but this is a world where alien monsters fall to earth and attack anything that makes noise… come on.

How did they find that out? This might be a nitpick as this is a prequel of an existing story, so we the audience knows how things work in this universe, it would have been nice to see how the people learned that. How exactly did they learn that the monsters can’t swim? How did they learn that they attack by sound? Since we’re following Sam, she gets knocked out after the initial attack and when she wakes up, like in the trailer, Henri muffles her cough and takes her into a room where everyone was silent. Now, obviously it’s common sense to be quiet when faced with danger but how did they learn that sound was what was called them? I think that would have been nice to see and learn because the movie takes place over like 4 days. I think they shouldn’t have had Sam be knocked unconscious and IF she HAD to be knocked unconscious, maybe that could have been a moment to cut to Eric? I don’t know lol. WE know they need to be quiet and water helps muffle sound and they can’t swim but it would have been nice to see how they learned that. The “they can’t swim” was massively broadcast which I guess the army could figure that out quickly but being silent? How do you KNOW that’s part of their lore??

Overall, it’s been a while since I’ve watched the other two so while I don’t think it’s better than the first one, I do think it’s better than the second one. I’ll do a rewatch when Day One comes out on streaming and I’ll officially decide then. I think the biggest thing about this movie is that the lead actors and the characters are so strong that you root for them, and Frodo of course. I think people went into this movie thinking we were going to see some huge monsters vs human sequences but that’s never been what these movies are about. They’re about the people who have to go through this catastrophes and I think this movie does that so well. The two leads are casted perfectly and they are the bread and butter of the film. I found that I was so invested in them. The chemistry you’ve been seeing in interviews and the red carpet is in the film and palpable to me. The tension in the film is effective, as well as the horror aspect but also the quiet moments are handled so well and are emotional. My only problems are probably small things, nitpicks, it’s very hard to find real issues with the film personally. You don’t have to like it but I don’t think it’s bad. It’s very good and adds to this world we’ve seen twice and further into it. So, A Quiet Place: Day One gets a glowing recommendation from me.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

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ONE MORE

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In case you were worried, Frodo the Cat survives.

Since Eric and Frodo survive, now they have to include them in the fourth film, which would be a direct continuation of A Quiet Place: Part 2. They just need to show that they either died or survived that island attack because the boat they were on at the end, did it go immediately to where Henri ended up in the second movie? Or did the boat stop in many locations? Just would love to know what happened to my boys.