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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

‘Quiet Place: Part II’: Shhhh, they’re still out there

Dan Webster

Above: Emily Blunt stars in "A Quiet Place: Part II." (Photo/Paramount Pictures)

Movie review: “A Quiet Place: Part II,” written and directed by John Krasinski, starring Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cillian Murphy. Playing in theaters.

The notion of movie serials began more than a century ago, back when it was common for people to catch a movie short every week, each film adding to an overall action-packed adventure story. The practice lasted for decades, though it gradually lost popularity – and, finally, was replaced by television.

It was the spirit of the serial genre that George Lucas tried to recapture with his “Star Wars” franchise. And it worked, sort of, though waiting upward of three years between 1977’s “Episode IV: A New Hope,” 1980’s “Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back” and 1983’s “Episode VI: Return of the Jedi” proved to be a lot more trying for movie fans of that era than it did for those from five decades before.

The main irritation? Classic serials have a trademark gimmick: the cliffhanger. An action hero, played by, say, Buster Crabbe as “Flash Gordon,” finds himself in dire peril – only to miraculously survive in the opening minutes of the following week’s episode. Each episode was planned intentionally as one thrilling near-disaster after the next – all the way to the very end when, predictably, good would win over evil.

Feature films, though, have different priorities. Or, at least, they should have. And those priorities should include a more complete storyline. It irritated me no end when near the end of “The Empire Stirkes Back,” the bounty hunter Boba Fett encased Han Solo in carbonite – talk about a cliffhanger – and I knew that I wouldn’t find out how Han’s friends would rescue him for three … more … years.

Yet I eventually came around and forgave Lucas. And part of why I did was because the film overall, as directed by Irwin Kershner from a script co-written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, was otherwise so entertaining.

Such feature-film franchises are now common and are little more than the modern equivalent of the classic serial. This is true of the “Fast and Furious” series, Marvel’s “Avenger” movies plus many more. And the same clearly applies to John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place: Part II.”

 A follow-up to 2018’s "A Quiet Place," "Part II" is both a prequel and a sequel. The first film thrusts us straight into the middle of the post-alien-invasion world, in which we meet the Abbott family – father Lee (played by Krasinski), mother Evelyn (played by Emily Blunt), daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and son Marcus (Noah Jupe). This second film begins by capturing the first few moments before the invaders even fall from the sky.

The ensuing sequence, highlighted in the film’s trailers, features some of the most thrilling action of recent history, all the more impressive because of director Krasinski’s limited experience (this being only his second blockbuster action film).

From there, we jump ahead to more than a year later. Evelyn, Regan, Marcus and Evelyn’s newborn baby are on the run – taking what they can from their former homestead and trying to find a new sanctuary. They stumble onto a secure lair kept by a former family friend, Emmett (played by Cillian Murphy), but he has no interest in helping. You can stay the night, he tells them, then you have to leave.

Regan, the deaf girl whose intelligence saved the day in the first film (though not in time to save daddy Lee), isn’t content to sit around, though. She sets out for the coast where, because of a radio signal that plays the Bobby Darin song “Beyond the Sea” on a continuous loop, she’s convinced she can find help.

Which gives director Krasinski, doubling this time as sole screenwriter, the opportunity to set up three dueling plotlines: Regan on her brave quest joined eventually by Emmett, Evelyn heading into town for needed supplies and Marcus left to babysit – all of them threatened, ultimately, both by the aliens who have discovered their respective presences and, in Regan and Emmett’s case, something more at home but just as dangerous.

Krasinski deserves credit for transitioning so smoothly from one situation to the next (as does film editor Michael P. Shawver). What’s impressive is how the transitions add to the movie’s suspense instead of detracting from it.

And the acting is fine across the board, not just from the adults Blunt and Murphy (plus, briefly, Djimon Hounsou) but even more prominently from Simmonds – who actually is deaf – and Jupe (the titular star of 2019’s movie “Honey Boy”).

Yet, ultimately, the overall plot that Krasinski dreamed up ends so suddenly, so without resolution, that the only conclusion possible is that he has a third film in mind. And damn if we won’t have to wait three years to find out what happens next.

Not that I blame Krasinski for following current fashion. This is how movies get made these days. I have, though, revived my grudge against George Lucas.

An edited version of this review was previously broadcast on Spokane Public Radio.