A Quiet Place Part II (John Krasinski, 2020)

 

A sequel was inevitable after the first part ended up narratively unconcluded and with critical acclaim, so the story picks up right where it cut off, with Emily Blunt still trying to keep her children safe in a hostile world where no sound goes unpunished. Nothing new is introduced, however, apart from Cillian Murphy's bereaved, reluctant ally, so it's really just a game of avoiding the aimless monsters, which are still given no motive or rationale, only relying on their presence as a means of forcing the human protagonists to cope with each other. This results in some emapathetic small dialogues as well as a constant sense of tension when the danger simply can't be planned for, but can't get any further than some vague War of the Worlds-type get-out clause. The franchise has duly reached the end of its natural lifespan, no matter how much anyone might still see bucks to be made by carrying on.

6/10   

Arctic (Joe Penna, 2018)

Without any preamble, we're with Mads Mikkelsen next to a crashed plane, surrounded by ice and snow. Most of what follows is without dialogue, just agonised grunting and panting as he goes through all means possible to feed himself and try to work out a way to contact civilisation, even after dragging a badly injured woman from a helicopter that crashes while responding to his distress beacon. The scenario is as bleak and unhistrionic as its setting, and while it certainly doesn't require artful writing and accordingly provides no great insights into the human condition as such, it does succeed in utterly immersing the viewer in the unforgiving situation, helped a great deal by Mikkelsen's determined command of the screen, not unlike Robert Redford's in the very similar set-up of 2013's All Is Lost.

6/10