{"id":24681,"date":"2024-07-01T23:13:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T03:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=24681"},"modified":"2024-07-01T23:15:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T03:15:21","slug":"searching-for-sustenance-in-a-quiet-place-day-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=24681","title":{"rendered":"Searching for Sustenance in A Quiet Place: Day One"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo by Gareth Gatrell\/Gareth Gatrell – \u00a9\u00a02023 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

In many ways, audiences were not ready for the success of A Quiet Place<\/strong>. Seemingly coming from out of nowhere from an unexpected source in John Krasinski<\/a>, a new franchise was born almost instantly. Krasinski returned to bring the sequel to life, but time has come to hand the reins off. Fresh off the critical success of his first feature film, Pig<\/strong>, Michael Sarnoski brings the start of the series to life through the eyes of different characters in a different location than the previous two films. Much like the first two stories, A Quiet Place: Day One<\/strong> tells a very personal story amongst the backdrop of an alien invasion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Life isn\u2019t going well for Samira (Lupita Nyong’o<\/a>). Living in a hospice facility as her health dwindles away, there is very little out there that makes Sam happy. She is convinced to join a group trip into New York City for a show, under the guise the group will stop for some real pizza before heading back. Nothing goes right from the get go. Sam was told they were going to the movies, but in reality it was a puppet show. Just as pizza time was nearing, they got a call saying they need to return ASAP.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

In seconds, the world comes to an end. Meteors strike the city, destroying buildings and launching murderous, sightless killer creatures from the rubble. Under the threat of extinction from these ferocious creatures, Sam decides her mission hasn\u2019t changed. Pizza or death. Going her own way along with her support cat, Frodo, Sam heads uptown in hopes of making it to Harlem. Along the way, she runs into Eric (Joseph Quinn<\/a>) who doesn\u2019t know what to do next. He ends up following Sam till she has no choice to let him tag along as the two hunt for pizza in the apocalypse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Photo by Gareth Gatrell\/Gareth Gatrell – \u00a9\u00a02023 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Taking it at face value, or just reading it as written above; the journey for pizza in such a tragic event seems silly. It doesn\u2019t take a genius to figure out the real issues though. Sam\u2019s world has been ending for quite some time. That desire to be happy again and enjoy something that has a connection than just more than sustenance before it is time to do is universally understandable. Though Sam is on a personal, almost selfish journey, that doesn\u2019t stop her from helping others. She may want to be left alone and may be suffering in ways her outer appearance doesn\u2019t always show. But unlike the visitors destroying Earth one sound at a time, Sam is no monster.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is where a lot of A Quiet Place: Day On<\/strong>e shows its holes. As viewers, we know how these creatures work. The need to go into an extra thirty minutes of expositional story telling is not needed. This causes the film to go into automatic apocalypse mode. It\u2019s only hours after the attack begins, and every character has firmly figured out how their attackers’ sound based mechanics works.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

Right after heading out on her own, Sam runs into two kids hiding under the dome of water from a park fountain. These two children figured out the whole, the sound of water throws the alien\u2019s senses off, in the span of an hour or so. Even with this knowledge from the first film, wouldn\u2019t the creatures need to attack these spots a few times before understanding it is a constant sound they need to leave alone? Worse than that, Sam offers these two children a Mounds bar and they scarf it down as if they’ve been hiding for days with no food. This was hours after the attack started. It’s a standard post apocalypse trope as the apocalypse just started.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Photo by Gareth Gatrell\/Gareth Gatrell – \u00a9\u00a02023 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Like any out-of-this-world horror story, this is a human tale. The specifics about the alien culture and intentions aren’t needed. But, A Quiet Place: Day One<\/strong> sins against both versions of these tales. A problem in general with previous films becomes a larger issue here. I don\u2019t need to know the motives of these bastard space murderers, but at the same time\u2026what is their purpose? They kill everything on earth, then what? They don\u2019t seem to have any societal structures. After all life on earth is dead, what is their food source? Do they plant vegetables? Do they have livestock?<\/span><\/p>\n

When a scene crops up of Eric being caught in what seems like a nest of aliens, it feels like we\u2019re going to get some more insight into how these things operate. What looks like an egg of an unborn alien killer is just torn apart by other creatures as they chow down on whatever the object was. I still have no idea of the purpose of anything in that scene other than having Eric in peril. If you\u2019re going to show a little bit more beyond the curtain, you need to have more substance than what we\u2019re given.<\/span><\/p>\n

The personal, human story of A Quiet Place: Day One<\/strong> is what\u2019s important and Sarnoski handles it well. But, this would have been a tale better served by its own dying world, and not part of the Quiet Place<\/strong> universe. The story isn\u2019t served properly from an already established story. It is hindered by lingering questions of a series that does well enough to keep going and expanding with no real endgame in sight.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Photo by Gareth Gatrell\/Gareth Gatrell – \u00a9\u00a02023 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Final Grade: B-<\/span><\/p>\n

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Check out more of Matthew’s articles.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s the trailer of the film.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n