I'm as clueless as the aliens in this movie I didn't even realize it was Joseph Quinn until I just looked at the poster while making this. Eddie cleans up nice. This movie is interesting in that while it doesn't really add anything to the "franchise", it offers up an interesting idea. Krasinski and company could get away with making a "Day whatever" movie every now and then with a couple of talented actors and get away with it. This movie, while barely worth watching, is one of the few non animated movies out right now that has any quality to it, so let's dive in.
The Acting
Joseph Quinn and Lupita Nyong'o are as good as advertised. They really aren't given much to do (Quinn himself doesn't show up till almost the half way mark), but they do well with the time they have. Kudos to any actor in these movies, as they have to do expressive acting in an era that long left the silent film behind. But as impressive as that acting can be, the movie takes plenty of rain delays to make sure their two highly paid stars (let's be honest they didn't pay Quinn a lot) to have some actual lines of dialogue. The only missed opportunity this movie has was to not have Djimon Hounsou do more. He's in the movie for like ten minutes, and he steals every minute. The staircase scene with his son is a LOT more interesting than the rest of the movie, then we just abandon it. Which leads us to the main issues with this movie.
The Story
The story about a terminally ill woman trying to get a piece of pizza definitely had my attention, but so many parts of it were so inconsistent. Specifically the cat. The superhuman cat who is also a tracker. Sometimes the cat is so smart it can track down the main characters from miles away, and sometimes it's so stupid it wanders into a nest full of monsters and has to be rescued for some reason (spookiness). A lot of the story for me is just thrown by how simplistic the threat seems to be. They follow sound. So when the HORDES of New Yorkers head south together to escape to safety, it's clearly the director creating a dangerous situation that makes zero sense. Just play some K Pop on some mega speakers north of the city while the citizens evacuate south. Instead of any cleverness or drama to this movie it's just a bunch of random things happening involving sound. What could have been an interesting story about the origin of the monsters, or at the very least the origin of the supporting characters in Chapter 2, is instead a story about a woman, a cat, and a random bot going to get a piece of pizza.
Summary
While the acting is top notch, the story and writing leaves a lot to be desired, as A Quiet Place lacks any of the thrills/tension of the previous two installments.
Score: 6/10
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