A Quiet Place Part II (4k Ultra HD + Blu-Ray + Digital HD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Jul 29th, 2021
Starring: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Djimon Hounsou, John Krasinski
Written By: John Krasinski
Directed By: John Krasinski
Studio: Paramount
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The surprising “horror” hit A Quiet Place was a thrilling, suspenseful movie that made you want more by the end of it. A Quiet Place Part II is more of the same, and that’s not a bad thing!
*Slight spoilers for people who haven’t seen the first movie*
The movie picks up where things left off in the first part (besides a flashback to Day 1). The Abbott Family consists of widowed mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt), her deaf daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds), son Marcus and the newborn baby. The family decides to search out for other survivors since their home is destroyed. They encounter Emmett (Cillian Murphy), a friend of Evelyn’s husband, who is hesitant to help and bring them into his sound proof foundry hideout. Regan discovers that an island off of NY is broadcasting “Beyond The Sea” over and over from a radio station and wants to go there to use their method of destroying the aliens. She leaves the family in the middle of the night and Evelyn pleads with Emmett to find and help her out.
I really enjoyed A Quiet Place when I reviewed it back in 2018. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it might be, and was more intense and suspenseful than anything. Sort of like Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, Signs…movies like that. The horror tag doesn’t really apply since the movie doesn’t really get into gory details. A Quiet Place movies are more like thrillers and suspense than anything. You’re on the edge of your seat sometimes because you feel like something could happen at any time. There’s very limited dialogue since half the time they are using sign language or whispering. The music is eerie, which I like and adds to the suspense. With that, I feel like I need to put on subtitles to hear them talking when there is dialogue. One thing that John Krasinski does very well in both movies is give the perspective of silence from Regan, what she is seeing but not hearing. In a way, it’s even more frightening because at least you can hear the aliens make noise if you aren’t deaf. From her perspective, you kind of don’t know if an alien is about to attack or not.
The sequel expands on the locations and cast, but still focuses on the surviving members of the Abbott family. Emily Blunt almost takes a backseat in place of Millicent Simmonds’s Regan character and Cillian Murphy’s Emmett. There’s two storylines happening but the main one is Regan’s journey to the island with Emmett. I was apprehensive about having more characters in the movie because I liked that part of the first movie. Takes place in one location with a very small cast. This one expands a bit but still the main focus is the family. The movie starts with a flashback, which I loved! Things are normal, a weekend kids baseball game in town and then – BOOM! Alien Attack! I kind of wish they would just do a prequel of the first few days. The flashback was important to have in it because not only was director and actor John Krasinski back in a cameo, but also introduced Emmett to the storyline.
I liked the Emmett character, but nothing we haven’t seen already in something like The Walking Dead. A character who lost everyone and is reluctant to help others, but then eventually does. Emily Blunt and Noah Jupe’s storyline made me anxious, especially when dealing with the newborn. From just having a newborn, let’s just say my family wouldn’t last long in that world. How they make the baby stay quiet in the movie is pretty creative, I must say. Djimon Hounsou makes almost a cameo size appearance, and I wish we got a little more of him. I also wish we got more scenes on the island. I think one problem I have with the movie (it could be seen as a good thing too), is just when you want the movie to continue on…it ends. Leave them wanting more I guess huh, John?
I watched half the movie on the 4k UHD disc until the disc was causing me issues around the 43 minute mark. I tried several times to eject, clean and put back in but was still getting faulty errors. I’ve been getting that a lot lately with some movies so not sure if it was my player or what, so that was a bit frustrating. The movie looked nice in 4k too so I ended up switching to the UHD digital copy to finish the movie. Obviously the stream isn’t as good in quality as the actual disc. If you want to watch the extras, you have to watch the Blu-Ray disc. On that disc, there’s director diary with John Krasinski on making the sequel, there’s a featurette about Regan’s journey, and special effects. Some decent stuff in there but not long enough in the end. Would have been nice to have the extras on the UHD disc too.
A Quiet Place Part II is just as intense and entertaining as the first film. The film focuses on Regan a lot more, and nothing wrong with that. Emily Blunt and Noah Jupe get stuff to do but this is really Millicent Simmonds’s movie. Cillian Murphy was a nice addition to the story as well. The sequel doesn’t suffer the sequel blues and glad Krasinski didn’t make this so overblown and over the top like everyone does with sequels. I’m assuming there will be a part III and really looking forward to where the story will go. At some point, it will need to end though.
Features:
Director’s Diary: Filming with John Krasinski
Pulling Back the Curtain
Regan’s Journey
Surviving the Marina
Video:
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1
German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1
Note: Spanish Espana and Latinoamerica
Subtitles:
English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Thai
Bottom Line: Just as entertaining as the first movie!
Running Time: 97 mins
Rating: PG-13
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
