John Krasinski continues to impress with "A Quiet Place Part II," which picks up just after the original concluded. The surviving members of the Abbott family are forced to flee their homestead and find a new place to hide from the invading aliens. Evelyn (Emily Blunt), Regan (Millicent Simmond), Marcus (Noah Jupe), and the new baby make their way to an abandoned foundry, occupied by Emmett (Cillian Murphy), an old friend who has become embittered by isolation.
I think the film actually peaks with its opening sequence, where we watch the initial arrival of the aliens play out while the Abbotts, including father Lee (Krasinski), are having a typical family outing. Watching how everyone reacts, and figures out how to escape and survive is thrilling, and it's a smart way to get the audience firmly back into this world, and reminded of the rules in play. The storyline of the rest of the film is much more loosely structured. Evelyn, Regan, and Marcus are eventually split up and each is forced to face the aliens alone. Marcus and Regan are pushed more to the forefront, taking up bigger hero roles, which lets the young actors stretch a bit more. We also get to see other corners of the world post-invasion, including the ways that surviving humans have learned to cope - or failed to.
The strength of the sequel is the same as its predecessor - the commitment to a unique premise that gives many opportunities for nervy action and suspense sequences. The use of quiet and stillness isn't as pronounced this time out, but it's still very effectively deployed. My only real issue with the film is that it is clearly a connector piece to another inevitable sequel. The plot and characters see some decent progression, and I appreciate that the scope of the adventure is kept pretty small, but this still feels more like the latest episode of a "Quiet Place" serial than a proper movie. So far it's a very good serial, though, so I'm not inclined to complain too much.
Now on to "The Tomorrow War," which is frankly not nearly as pulpy as the premise would suggest. It stars Chris Pratt as Dan Forester, a veteran and teacher who is drafted into a war that is taking place decades in the future. The human race is losing against an invading force of aliens, and as a desperate measure are taking people from the past to shore up their dwindling resistance. Dan leaves behind a wife, Emmy (Betty Gilpin) and daughter Muri (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), to travel to the future war, alongside average people like Charlie (Sam Richardson), a talkative scientist. Other major characters include Dan's estranged father played by JK Simmons, and a colonel played by Yvonne Strahovski who Dan meets in the future.
When I first heard about "Tomorrow War," I assumed the time travel was going to play a bigger role in the film, and we'd have a much sillier, "Bill and Ted" style treatment of the war against the aliens. Instead, the tone is initially very grim. The aliens, called the White Spikes, are terrifying Xenomorph-like critters capable of causing massive amounts of destruction. The warfare sequences are more horrific than exciting, and a lot of people get killed off in a very short amount of time. The concepts and the scenarios are still fairly ridiculous, but I respect that everyone does their best to play it straight, and that the script manages to come up with some pretty solid stakes for Dan in the future war. The trouble is, the third act takes a turn for the sillier and tropey-er, which undercuts a lot of these earlier efforts.
The resulting film is wildly uneven, but acceptable for gee-whiz summer blockbuster fodder. I mean, I can't be too upset with a film where the vicious aliens are a very unsubtle metaphor for climate change, or where J.K. Simmons gets to be a snarky badass. I regret that this was an Amazon Prime premiere, and I didn't get the chance to see the carnage on a much bigger screen. Also, it's a terrible shame that Betty Gilpin wasn't allowed to get in on the action, and is stuck in the suburban mom role the whole time. Then again, Chris Pratt is barely allowed to crack a smile for the duration, which is a terrible waste of his talents as well. "Tomorrow War" is fine for what it is, but it's not showcasing what anybody involved is capable of.
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