Rating: C-
Dir: John Krasinski
Star: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe
To say up front, I didn’t enjoy this film even though it receives generally good reviews elsewhere, and despite enjoying the first outing.
As with the first film this is co-written and directed by John Krasinski. The first ten minutes, setting the scene for those who missed or who have forgotten the basic premise, are head-and-shoulders the best ten minutes of the film, exciting, compelling, engaging. The rest I found boring, irritating, contrived, stupid, baffling, or all the above, in any and all permutations. To summarise: blah blah, aliens crash land mid minor-league baseball game, blah, instant death, blah, blind aliens with 3D hearing, blah blah blah, all of man’s defences have failed, blah blah, run, save yourselves. You got the scene?
Millicent Simmonds is excellent and earnest in her role as Regan, and is the main protagonist with some deft sound-work used to portray her profound deafness. Emily Blunt as mum Evelyn is compelling, and a muted Cillian Murphy almost completely submerged by his beard whilst playing brother-in-law/close family friend Emmett. Noah Jupe also appears as son Marcus, with seemingly his main function being to scream in pain, whilst not bickering with sister Regan.
If you have a low tolerance for on-screen stupidity then you may well struggle with this film. I did. ‘We must all stay togrther and act thoughtfully, and in concert’ said, obviously, no-one to any-one, perhaps opining instead that it would be best if ‘we all scatter like cats to the four winds as, in that way, everything will probably work out for the best all round. Maybe. Well. Assuming we’re not all slaughtered.’ The whole film feels so contrived and willfully stupid that (much like Alien: Covenant) I ended up wanting the aliens to win, to slaughter all of the bumbling idiots, and put us out of our misery. Quickly. Please.
Anyway, needing to leave their relatively secure home Evelyn and her family set off in search of a safer place, ending up bumping into Emmet. To cut this tedious tale short, the aliens can’t swim and so ‘some of them’ (obviously) make their way to an uninfected island where the people live in idyllic peace and sing songs whilst gathered around huge camp-fires as butterflies flit in harmonious peace and joy. Here, despite knowing the horrors going on but a short boat ride away, lives this happy and relaxed commune with seemingly no plans nor preparations for the unlikely event that one of the monsters somehow reaches the island. And. Well. Can you guess?
The rest, I can’t be bothered to record, but rest assured, and against all odds, and in part by circumventing the laws of physics, our plucky band of dysfunctional survivors survive. Just in time, perhaps, for another quiet place…? (Please no!)
I was going to rate this a D, but, on reflection, that would have perhaps been harsh. So, C-, but only by the thinnest of edges.