Brief Story Line
Sam (Lupita Nyong'O - The 355, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever etc) was a terminally ill cancer patient who was living in a hospice in New York. After being convinced by the care worker Reuben (Alex Wolff - Jumanji: The Next Level, Hereditary etc) to have a bit of fun, Sam decided to go along with some of the other patients to Manhattan. Unfortunately there was a major alien attack and it was soon realized that people must keep quiet to avoid being killed.
Sam met with other survivors including Henri (Djimon Hounsou - Rebel Moon, The King's Man etc) with his son and later an English law student Eric (Joseph Quinn - Dickensian TV series etc). They were informed to go to another location for rescue, but Sam had other plans instead.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
This movie was set on the first day of the alien attack that was hinted in the movie A Quiet Place. So in term of time line, it should be considered a prequel but since the lead characters were different, I felt it was more suitable categorized as spin-off. The film started off with the introduction of Sam which was important to provide background on her set of mind but it did not take very long to reach the intense moment.
As the story progressed though, my wife and I could feel that the movie seemed to focus more on the drama side and the suspense was not exactly consistent. The intensity was only felt occasionally, as the movie opted to show more on the humanity side. Which is why I totally understand why critics had great views of this film as proven by its high critical rating. But for me and my wife, we somehow felt it took a bit of what made the previous movies so great, i.e. the almost nonstop suspenseful moments. However it does not mean that this film was not good, it's just that if we compared to the previous two movies, this one felt a bit lacking.
There were not a lot of terrifying scenes here but they were done quite effectively. Too bad the sound system in the cinema we saw this was pretty standard and did not feel grand enough. Luckily the brightness was still good, otherwise it would not be fun if we could not see clearly what was going on on the screen as many times they were set at night or inside dark room. The movie was pretty successful in the jump scare scenes as they were able to make me and my wife shocked few times. The cast were great to my opinion, in particular Nyong'O and Quinn with their wonderful interaction and they also provided few touching moments which were pretty emotional.
During the closing credit, I noticed that John Krasinski name was credited under "Story by" together with Michael Sarnoski who was famous for writing and directing the critically acclaimed Pig. Just like in that movie, he also wrote and directed this film. I like the special effects of this movie which I saw in the closing credits (that has no mid or post end credit scenes), were still done by a large team including the big name of ILM. So there was no decrease in quality of the monsters/aliens effects. Oh, in case you are wondering, the cat Frodo was not created by computer but played by two real cats.
Overall this is an entertaining sci-fi film set in the same universe of A Quiet Place but less horrifying as it emphasized more on the human side with a simple story. I gues they could make a lot of movies if the focus was on the various people affected by this vicious alien attack. Nevertheless, this is a good enough spin-off. Although it was still good, it might not be as satisfying as its predecessors, especially for audience looking for nonstop suspense like me and my wife. So if you are of the same view like the critics, I am quite sure you would love this, but if your preference is like us, then you might be less satisfied.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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